


Just Pretend

by FiveRaysOfSun



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Eventual Smut, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Porn With Plot, Slow Burn, aron has a crush on his bff, scared to tag this as humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-06-30 10:22:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 113,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19851172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiveRaysOfSun/pseuds/FiveRaysOfSun
Summary: Dongho, the oldest son refuses to get married, after giving up on him his family has him set him up with a guy instead, Hwang Minhyun. Although Dongho has no interest in him, he still agrees to fake being a couple together to get himself off the hook.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is gonna probably b a very boring long one,, ,
> 
> also btw if ure a person who doesn't tolerate this group but still read its fics for some weird reason then u cant read this (or pretty much anything else posted by me) bc it makes me uncomfortable uwu
> 
> for those only reading for research purposes, the chapter/-s containing smut so far are; ch.7, ch.14, ch.16, ch.20, ch.24, ch.26

***

The heart in his chest was about to jump out of Donghos own throat. He was dashing towards the mall restaurant where his family had told him to come meet them and if Dongho was late even by a minute, he would probably get yelled at for it.

With rabid breaths and far spaced stomps the panting man neared the dining place that his auntie had specifically picked out. Dongho would leap around people within his quick line of sight as if they were living hurdles.

The jerk wasn’t looking where he was running at all, leaving little time for people inside of the busy mall to jump aside. At that point, Donghos vision was only pointing in a straight line fixated on a sign board of a fancy dining place in the distance. Gasps and curses sounded from behind him, but he never once looked back.

The dark haired male had made it, wheezing and sweating. Once he could stop he had his hands clutched into his own knees that way Dongho could slouch over and rest, before barging into the neatly spread out tables of such an exquisite establishment, where his wind blown hair and red running face would only attract weird stares. 

Unsurprisingly for him, amongst the stares watching him come in weren’t any belonging to members of his family. Kang swore to himself this had to be the right place, so he looked around once more to make sure if he had really been tricked again. In that moment of him searching for his damn aunt, his eyes then met a lone young woman sitting by herself at a table for two.

It didn’t take Dongho a minute to figure out that he had been tricked by instead of meeting his family he had been set up for a blind date with some stranger. Despite wanting to storm off right away, he joined the woman at the table just to be nice. She glanced at him only to pass him a nod. 

“Oh, hey.” The woman sounded rather unenthusiastic to see him, perfectly matching Dongho.

He sat his elbow on the table looking behind himself as if his evil auntie who had done this to him were still somewhere around spying on him. Meanwhile, the woman sitting across copied Dongho to see who he was so fiercely trying to find in the crowd. His teeth had been gritted and sharp as if he was to bite someone.

This type of thing happened to Dongho quite often. Most of Donghos family didn’t live in Seoul, the guy instead lived with his aunt from the city while he was attending the university here. She was very adamant that her nephew who was already in his twenties should move out to live on his own by now instead of living on someone else’s neck, yet Kang didn’t have a job and never even thought about saving up to start a family.

Therefore they just wanted to marry him off as quickly as possible. It didn’t help that all of his youngest siblings had already gotten married and spawned offspring already. While Dongho refused to bring a girl home and introduce to his parents, the reason for that being the fact that he switched from one girl to the next in the matter of just days. The guy was a total playboy.

Yet he simply couldn’t care. He had dozens of young cousins, so many that he had even lost count, some of them still babies. So it wasn’t like the family line would end if he didn’t get married, he complained against it.

Dongho turned back in his seat to face the woman. She was dressed pretty and had long dyed hair flowing over her shoulders. The woman sat polite with her back tall and straight, manicured hands cupping a teacup of a warm drink she had gotten while waiting for someone to show up. This girl was the type of woman that Donghos aunt wished to see by his side.

He shot his chin at her, “Hey listen,—gosh this is so humiliating,” The anxious Dongho had interrupted himself. He bought his fingernails to his own mouth, before only moments later he realized that he shouldn’t nervously bite his nails like that in front of a lady. 

As she began to grimace, Dongho tried to continue, “You see, this is a giant misunderstanding!” He wasn’t trying hide his agitation, considering that this was already his second time this week of this happening to him.

The woman didn’t even look surprised, her eyelashes drooped low from boredom, “So, I get that they tricked you too right?” 

She sighed, putting one of her hands under her chin to balance her head. Her whole posture quickly changed to slouched. “Wait, Huh?” Dongho bounced eyebrows on his forehead high up, not expecting that kind of reaction from her.

She groaned bringing herself to be looking at Dongho just to explain her side, “My parents told me that they were going to meet me here, but instead they must have set me up to meet with you.”

Dongho let out a surprised laugh combined with relief, “Woah, me too!” Never had he met anyone in the same predicament as him before, because usually he only ended up getting slapped or chased out upon revealing the lack of interest to his female blind dates who were hoping to go out with him.

Dongho never even thought about actually dating any of the women his aunt had lined up for him, no matter how cool they were or what their backgrounds were, simply because all of them wanted to get married or at least have a serious relationship. While Dongho didn’t want neither of those things.

His current date popped his bubble of thought when she spoke again, “If I had known I’d be meeting a guy I would not have not even left my bed today.” She spoke in regret, pulling back her dress sleeve to reveal an impatient wristwatch that would tell her the time she had wasted today.

“Wait, what does that mean?” Dongho didn’t understand, but he could only assume it probably meant something mean and directed at him.

“It’s not like you are my type either!” He instantly complained, or more like mumbled under his breath far away from the ears of the bored to death woman sitting ahead of him.

The table became quiet for approximately two seconds before Dongho jumped to hold out his hand and formally introduce himself regardless, “The name is Kang Dongho.”

The woman hesitated taking his hand for a bit, flashing a mean look at it, before finally giving in. “I’m Eunwoo.” She didn’t disclose her full family name to the guy she did not trust.

From there Dongho tried to strike up an actual conversation wanting exchange tips on how to get rid of pressuring parents. “So, how did you wind up in this position?” He spoke.

“Same as you I’d assume.” She sounded exhausted of conversation, “I don’t have a boyfriend and my family wants me to get married before I turn thirty.”

She was extremely attractive, so Dongho had assumed that she probably already had guys lining up for her. Dongho slowly nodded not realizing his jaw was starting to hang low and mouth gape, “Well, why don’t you have a – boyfriend?”

She knitted her eyes together into an angry line, glaring at the wide eyed boy, “Take a good guess, Kang.” Dongho was clueless, “Uhh—” 

“I already have a girlfriend I love.” She finished it for him, Dongho jolted in his seat, making his mouth suddenly shut, “Oh! Right.”

“So annoying, right?” She complained, hoping the guy would understand how much this must suck for her. Meeting one boring unmarried man after another, just to please her foolish parents.

But Dongho had been quiet, zoned out. All of a sudden Donghos pupils had gone small becoming just tiny dark dots. He had just come up with the most stupidest idea – if he just lied by saying that he wasn’t into girls, then maybe he could finally live in peace without being forced to marry one.

He instantly erased that dumb idea from his skull, and just as he was about to share how stupid it would be if he ever did do something like that with the woman, she had interrupted him first, already bored of Donghos deep silence.

“Uh, yeah,” The woman shrugged and started to pick up the purse hanging over the back of her chair before even finishing her cup. “So if you don’t mind me, I’m going to leave now.” She answered herself.

The man didn’t even process that his date was already over so quickly. “Wait, will I ever see you again Eunwoo?” He asked in a somewhat desperate voice. 

“Not a chance.” She flashed him a proud thumbs up before her heels began to click away into the distance.

Dongho back at his aunts home later, joining her and his dozen cousins around a big dinner table. He had walked in late, the situation on his aunts face looked tense. She knew about the Donghos date not going anywhere.

As soon as he found his seat at the table, as expected, his aunt stone faced and greatly disappointed, began to relentlessly scold him for ruining yet another date to his whole extended family. Dongho sat there with at least ten eyes on him, the shrill voice of the woman was making his head spin like he was going to faint from it.

His stress had reached a point where he would do anything to make it stop. Dongho hated feeling pressured, and bossed around like that.

In the heat of the moment, he spoke without thinking, and ended up saying something he totally did not wish to say at all. He had been temporarily influenced by that same dumb thing that he had been thinking of earlier.

“I don’t like girls.” He said it. It took him a second to realize what he had just announced and he instantly tried to take it back. 

“Wait—no, I meant—” He stuttered, his brain busy trying to figure out why the fuck had he said something that wasn’t even true.

A tidal wave of silence had already washed over the long table, yet some held chuckles here and there. His aunt instantly believed it, as she was desperate enough to believe it at this point.

“That is really not what I meant to say at all.” He swore, but at this point everyone acted like the secret was out of the bag. No one would believe Dongho telling the honest truth anymore.

The gaping mouths around him gradually shifted back closed, after someone clearing his throat way too loudly, people began to lean from ear to ear for secret chatters. While his aunt stood there frozen in time like a statue. Eventually, she began to unglue her tightly shut lips.

“Dongho, is this really true?” The guy was suddenly put on the spot, his eyes darted from left to right, yet everywhere he looked there were eyes on him. His chair seat suddenly was feeling as hot as a stove.

“No, it is not.” His nervous reply earned him more creaked laughs, half his family were really trying to hold it back now. “Guys, I am straight.” He made it clear.

“Whatever you say!” A cousin of his pitched in. The little one knew that Dongho had lied about it, but just like rest of the kids who saw through him, acted as if they knew nothing. That made him want to growl.

The woman lowered her eyes, going back to eating like it was nothing in effort not to offend Dongho, yet the tremor of uncertainty was evident in the way she held the eating utensils in her hand.

A few days had passed by and Dongho noticed slight changes in the way he was being treated around the house, it never occurred to him why though, since he gad already forgotten about the incident. Yet he was always reminded of his own false reveal every time he heard his auntie stumble on her words around him, despite him repeating that he had only been kidding as a poor excuse.

Ignoring the attempts to prove her wrong, she had become highly inclusive around Dongho, like by talking to the other kids about their girlfriends – or boyfriends if they preferred, whenever Dongho was in the same room. It made him cringe a little, but at one point he just gave up and played along. Sooner or later everyone would realize that Dongho was indeed straight and then this cruel mockery would stop.

At least for now the talk about his future family had ceased, no longer did he have to hear stupid name suggestions for his unborn children. How could Dongho think about children, he was still a university student for fuck sake. 

Donghos family was pretty big, but they weren’t that well off, so the pressure was put on the eldest kids to get a job quicker to be able to support themselves. He had been attending university for a few months now, Dongho had been flunking all the way through high school, so surely it turned out to be way more difficult than what he had imagined. It didn’t help that instead of his studies, he focused on hooking up with the college girls and hanged around the group of most depraved dudes possible.

After the end of a school day, he would spent long hours in the universities library typing out his research papers until it was almost time for the library to shut its lights. All the computers back home were busy all day long anyway, as those little rascals fought to have turns on who gets to play video games next on it instead of letting Dongho study.

By the time he walked out from the university building, the whole sky had gone dark, only few rare stars pierced through the gloomy clouds, shining more faint than even the lights of planes passing by.

A red nose poked out of his scarf to sniffle, pointing at those same clouds that hid the moon behind a thick veil. It was so cold outside tonight that Dongho had to rub his hands together and stomp his feel to stay composed. He expected for his auntie to pick him up tonight in her old truck, yet it appeared that she had yet to show up. It was strange, as his auntie was never this late before.

Dongho almost jumped noticing that someone had been standing beside him for quite a while now, and his noise of surprise sounded like a deep bark. Offended by the sudden appearance of the stranger, he squinted to see who the person was in the dark while their figure stood illuminated by the bright glass windows of the university entrance right behind them.

It was a tall guy, almost as tall as a mountain standing straight with arms locked behind his back, the dude was also looking up at the invisible moon, probably trying to parrot Dongho. The stranger quickly noticed that he was being glared at and he turned to Dongho by smiling directly at him, it was the scariest thing Kang had to live through.

“You are Kang Dongho right?” The tall male asked, his voice low and a little deep like he waa trying to impress.

Dongho could finally see more than just the tall mans profile – he was stunningly handsome. A row of perfectly bright teeth sneered and eyes curved into thin lines the harder he smiled. Dongho almost got a whiplash just by looking at the stranger standing so pretty.

“How do you know me?” Dongho blinked his eyeballs that had all of a sudden gone dry. A flash of heat had even moved down his spine.

“I am Hwang Minhyun, I’m here to pick you up. Remember?” He tilted his head and puckered his lips into a pout. Dongho couldn’t exactly decide which of those two gestures annoyed him more.

“The hell?” Dongho flashed his eyes away from the tall bastard to think if this was some kind of a prank, or perhaps even his aunts doing. Dongho gulped, “You aren’t here to take me out for dinner or anything right?” Fingers crossed.

The mans weird tone and cautious wording made Hwang more confused than ever, he was under the impression that Kang Dongho was the one who had wanted to meet him first.

“Well, yeah?” Minhyun didn’t know what else to say, his hands became stuffed in his pockets. “Why?” Dongho stared at him like an idiot.

“Because I’m attracted to you, Kang Dongho.” He answered so calmly and casually, all while the short guy was actively losing his mind in the background. It was obvious as to what was going on here, Donghos auntie had tried setting him up with a guy. This couldn’t possibly get even more worse.

“No way.” Dongho whined out loud in disbelief, surprising the other, “You can’t be fucking serious?”

“What’s wrong?” Donghos new date couldn’t really tell just by looking at the mans desperate facial expressions alone.

Dongho couldn’t speak to explain it out loud out here. He looked around for any other students, anyone who knew him or would spread mean gossip about him. No one was there, but he was still so paranoid.

“Just—come with me first!” Dongho grabbed the guy by the elbow and pulled him back inside the still brightly lit university.

No students were around inside either, just the janitor slowly scrolling a wide wet mop down the long hallway that the two men had to dodge as Dongho continued to endlessly pull his new boyfriend into some place dark. 

“In here, quick.” Dongho continued.

For Hwang, This was so exciting, he even began to deviously grin at the other shortly before than grin had been stripped from him once Dongho had pushed him out into a tight stairway hidden behind a door that then just slammed shut behind them.

“What’s going on?” Minhyun started nervously looking around the small, windowless staircase. This certainly was not how he had envisioned his and Donghos first date turning out after all.

The other man suddenly looked so pale before him. “Gosh! You tell me man!” Dongho released the boys elbow to comb through his own hair from stress. He couldn’t believe that wicked aunt of his would do something like this to him, even after he had sworn the truth was different.

The tallest had to wave his palm in front of the other to wake him up from his murderous cloud of thoughts, “Is something wrong, did I perhaps misunderstand?” He worried.

Kang felt like a total fool, even more so now that he was starting to pity this poor bastard who had been tricked as well. “Actually,” Dongho bit his own tongue to stop.

It took him a moment to man up, “I am not really interested in this thing! My ridiculous aunt keeps setting me up with people because she’s scared that I might end up unhappy and alone.” Dongho lowered his voice speaking like an ashamed puppy before Minhyun.

The tallest began to flutter his long lashes in effort to understand, “So you don’t want to go out with me?” Dongho nodded to confirm, “Nah, I don’t even like men.”

“Ah, I see.” Surprisingly Minhyuns face didn’t change and his next reply came out awfully robotic sounding as well, “Goodbye, then.”

Dongho panicked from the sudden movement of Minhyun walking away from him, so he clumsily stood in his way to stop him. “Wait, wait, wait! Hang on!” He pleaded.

“What is it?” Minhyun nudged his chin to the side, signaling for Dongho to say it or leave it, he was kind of pissed off now too. So he gave his short lived date an entirely different face.

“You can’t just leave now! I don’t know what to do!” With that, Dongho had made the other man interested enough to cease his escape from the humiliating situation for a bit to hear him.

Minhyun crossed his arms over his chest, “What do you mean? What else am I supposed to do for you now that you’ve dumped me?”

Dumped – Dongho had never agreed to date this awful jerk in the first place, he had literally just showed up. “I didn’t dump you—ugh!” Dongho didn’t even want to argue. He ran up to sit on of the stairwell steps to be gripping his head that was from now on throbbing so hard it felt like exploding.

“I just lied to my family about something very big,” He shocked Minhyun, “I couldn’t get them to leave me alone about marriage, so I just made up a lie that I ain’t straight or something.”

“I told them it wasn’t even true! But here we are!” He whined. “Heh.” Minhyun had a small chuckle, he felt that maybe Dongho actually had deserved what was coming to him.

Dongho raised his eyes at the other looking ugly red and as if he was about to break into a sob if someone merely touched him, “Don’t laugh right now you prick!”

“I don’t think I can do anything to help you out.” Minhyun almost pulled the pockets of his jacket inside out when he took his hands out to sway them off his sides. Nothing in them.

In the most abrupt way possible, Dongho had ended moping on the steps, to be jumping up to his feet to speak all formally, as if doing that was going to help him get out of this mess.

“My aunt won’t believe a thing I say anymore, from now on I know that she’s just going to keep making me see more scary men.” Dongho begged the stranger to give him the best advice, as if he knew purely because he liked men.

“Scary?” Minhyun paused, turning his cheek to the side to think if he really was that scary to Dongho. He supposed that he really shouldn’t have sneaked up on him like that out there.

“Dude,” Donghos voice suddenly became as quiet as a breath. “Should I just pretend I’ve died in an accident?” His eyes were peeled wide, signifying that he was seriously considering that as an option.

The tallest burst into the biggest laugh at the guy, he found Dongho too cute to be true by acting so erratic over something as nonsensical as this. Minhyun just wanted to reach out squish his rosy cheeks.

“I hope you figure it out!” Minhyun cheered for the man, patting him on a shoulder for good luck. This was where they had to part.

Minhyun attempted to leave again only to be stopped for the second time. “Wait, Y—you.” Dongho stuttered, mumbling his words while being too shy to admit he had already forgotten the name of the other.

“Hwang Minhyun.” The kind man reminded him. It sounded like a pretty name, Dongho had always been bad with remembering names, but this one was fairly simple.

His voice remained upset as if he was going to melt into a puddle of sadness, eyes somewhere on a floor. “Ah, right. Hwang, I still need help getting home.” He tried not to show it.

Before the night reached the ghastly hour, Dongho reached home by Minhyuns car. The tall man drove a luxurious sports car, it made Dongho envious for the whole ride. His aunt was bonkers to simply find a loaded guy like this on the streets for him, Dongho started to wonder where the guy worked, how much he made, but he decided to rather not say anything at all until the awkward ride was over, which came soon.

For some unknown reason, right when Dongho was stepping out, the universe had made him turn back and look back inside instead of closing the door shut right away. The bastard was smiling wide. 

“Take care, Dongho.” The next second the same door slammed shut in Minhyuns face, Dongho felt just as angry at the guy as he was with his aunt.

Through the tinted cars windows he watched the other guy angrily run indoors before anyone could see, his backpack pushed high up on his back. The tall male felt a bit melancholy watching that silly guy run off without even saying bye, Minhyun didn’t expect to ever see him again.

A martial arts gym located inside the university that Kang attended was always full of yelling and screaming, everyone unfortunate enough to find themselves walking past it had to stuff fingers in their ears for safety. Dongho was already used to it by now, he came here often to spar with his buddies and build muscle along the way.

Today was after practice, he dropped to sit down on a floor mat, and wore a sweat drenched towel hanging down his neck. At the time, Dongho was in middle of squeezing the last of clear water from his bottle, when an unexpected attack from the side almost made him spit his whole drink.

“Hey, Dongho!” His close friend and classmate had crashed beside him, dropping his large gym duffel bag right beside him. 

“Did I miss the practice?” He smiled all cheeky, implying that the bastard had totally not been skipping it on purpose. Which was totally the case.

Donghos friend was this small, scrawny dude with big bushy eyebrows who was lacking in height. Kwak Aaron, had moved to study in Korea from the states after his parents had kicked him out for sitting on his ass and only playing video games after high school. The two boys had quickly become friends, partially because Dongho was the only one who could actually tolerate him.

However, today the tallest wasn’t giving Aaron a warm welcome, he flashed his teeth before returning to drinking up high. 

“Hey! What’s with that mean face, my man?” Aaron teased his friend, who was obviously in a bad mood. 

Thus, Aaron became silent in suspicion, his eyes scout around the gym for a cause. When the shortest spoke again, his voice was no more than a whisper, “Did one of the kids at home beat you up?”

“Ugh, no that is not it!” Dongho sighed, feeling like he was about to toss that bottle across the room in agitation. His friend tried to guess again, “A girl turned you down?” Aaron watched his friend shake his head. 

“Then what’s the matter with you today, Kang?” Aaron mocked his big sigh. Dongho turned to him in one swing, Aaron had missed it by blinking. Now his eyes were wide facing Dongho, angry like a bull glaring at him.

“You remember when I told you about that stupid lie I slipped out by accident, correct?” Donghos question automatically had made Aaron break into a guilty chuckle, how the fuck could he forget about that.

“Yeah, that you like dudes now, right?” Aaron said out loud without thinking, causing Dongho to ready his fists to silence him. Luckily nobody had heard, the gym was still loud.

“Quiet down you fucking moron!” Dongho scolded him, Aaron only innocently smiled back at him, just asking for that punch.

The short male stopped his teasing, “What of it?” Dongho had no idea how to say this, he knew Aaron would laugh at him and say he deserved this, but Kang seriously had no one else to vent to.

“My aunt is fucking out of her mind man, she’s starting to set me up with guys!” Dongho ranted, forgetting his own vow to stay silent, as expected Aaron just lost his shit.

The little bastard almost fell over laughing, holding to his gut as if it was about to fall out. “Fuck, that’s so good!” He cheered.

Dongho pounced from his seat and tackled the man, pressing the boys shoulders down into the mat to stop him from laughing like it tickled, “What is with you man, this is fucking serious!”

Aaron had abruptly stopped laughing out of fear, he now obediently listened to the guys every word, “Uh-huh?” He nodded.

Dongho noticed the sudden silence not only coming from Aarons mouth, but also all around him. He flicked his head to the other gym people and saw all of their stares focused directly at the two boys tussling on the ground. So he quickly got off, realizing the ambiguous position he was in with that bastard, then turning to wipe his face with his hand in agitation.

“Gosh, this is just so annoying!” He whined.

The shortest cleared his throat after getting back up to speak, “Did you already go on a blind date with some guy?” 

He chuckled as soon as he saw Dongho nod with a pout, “My aunt knew some guy, so she made me go see this kid just because he’s into guys too.”

He rant, “The idiot even said he liked me, but I told him to screw off, so now my aunt is probably looking for new candidates already.” The back of his wrist was pressed to his sweating forehead in order to lessen the headache that he was getting.

“Woah,” Aaron expressed his amazement, “He even fancied you, poor guy. Who was he, what was he like?” His eyes glowed with a dangerous, curious shine.

The shortest couldn’t imagine anyone in the right mind dating this moron. Dongho looked tough and manly from afar, but once you actually spent more than five minutes, he’d be putting a forefinger into his own nose all the way up past the first knuckle joint and spinning it wide and around as if dialing a rotary phone.

Dongho shrugged his shoulders, “Hwang—Minhyun or something, I don’t fucking know.” He added, “He looked my age, could’ve been a student too.”

“You think that kid goes to this school?” Aaron theorized, “Hope not, if I ran into that bastard again I’m going to die of shame and so is he.” Dongho cussed.

Interested, Aaron scooted to sit much closer and private to Dongho, his knees pressing tight together. “You gotta tell your family the truth, man.” Aaron worried. 

“Do you think I haven’t tried that already, idiot? Although, its not all too bad, do you got any idea how lucky I’ve gotten with meeting new girls this past week unbothered?” He lowkey boasted.

The same man suddenly turned away to wistfully stare into the distance, imaginary sad piano music playing in his head, “If my parents see me with any of them now they will just force me to get married and have kids, its dreadful.”

The eldest lowered his head, bobbing it up and down in fake sympathy. The little prick was secretly still dying on the inside over this.

“Aaron, if it comes down to it,” There was a nervous pause in Donghos words, sweat drops gathered not only on his own forehead, but also Aarons.

“Would you break up with your girlfriend and just go out with me?” Dongho spoke in a super serious voice.

Aaron blinked his big doe eyes at his best friend for a bit, before they quickly slid down to the watch on his wrist, “Huh, looks like its just about lunch time.”

Donghos pupils zoomed wide, like cats before a pounce. He leaped forwards to catch Aaron who’s prey animal reflexes had kicked in telling him to get up and run. This time luckily he escaped, leaving Dongho, fallen face flat on the floor, in the dust behind him.

After the end of the same practice and changing into his everyday clothes, Dongho began to think about what he would do for today after school, since he was still energized, not really wishing to study. 

These days he had loads of time to spare, because of no more awkward first dates and greeting families of women which he was not going to marry. No more being monitored and being put on a curfew for breaking the rules and disappointing his parents. He was more free than ever, all at the cost of that stupid lie.

He slammed the locker locked shut, taking a peek inside of his wallet to see how much he could even afford for today, only cobwebs came from the empty wallet, the small crumpled pieces of gum paper had given him the false impression of owning money.

Just then, Donghos eyes jumped far wide noticing a never seen before movie ticket just so casually sitting in his own wallet out of the blue. It was a ticket for a screening of a new movie in a cinema not far from his university, coincidentally happening in just over an hour from now.

Dongho clearly had no recollection of ever getting this himself, yet this couldn’t possibly be a trap – he thoughtfully resolved his concerns. After all, Kang couldn’t just let a free movie ticket simply go to waste like that.

The line at the theater door was becoming shorter and shorter with each person that disappeared through the said door. Neatly dressed personnel greeted each person inside, guiding them to go down a red carpet path to the designated seats. 

Dongho had arrived at a late night screening barely in time since he had been walking here on foot, the man rewarded himself by using his scratched up bank card to purchase the biggest cup of popcorn known to man during the little time that was left before the premiere. 

He walked with a wobble, holding the cup under his armpit while leaning his jaw to reach the soda drink straw in his other hand slurping loud and with confidence knowing that he was fully alone. Soon everyone had already gone inside, but the doors stayed open waiting for the last of moviegoers to arrive within the final minute. Dongho began to waddle his short, stubby legs faster.

But when he had thought that he was alone, he had never been so wrong in his life. Just then, from the corner of his eye he saw his worst nightmare. His head almost mechanically turned to look at a familiar face.

“Oh, hey. I almost thought that you wouldn’t make it.” Came the low voice of a young male. Minhyun greeted him with a slimy grin on his face, he was comfortably leaning with his back pressed to a wide window directly facing the door of entry.

The liquid stored inside of Donghos straw went back the straw in reverse, his puffed cheeks hallowed to null with a slurp. He let go of it to scold the other, “You? What on earth are you doing here too?”

Minhyun smiled, sliding a movie ticket out of his coat pocket and flashing it at Dongho. “You said that wanted to watch this with me?”

“No?” Dongho phrased his answer like a question, which was more directed at himself rather than Minhyun. 

In that moment of time, Dongho had to make a mental pause to think of how he had even ended up here. Earlier he had found a random movie ticket in his bag out of nowhere, not realizing that it was probably his aunts plan again, and without thinking about it he had gone to the premiere right into the trap.

The mans silence was unnerving, Minhyun spoke in his place again, “I thought you changed your mind again and wanted to see me?”

“No way, I did not!” Dongho clutched his food and drinks to his chest, pouting his cheeks like a pufferfish in a defensive mode. “Don’t come out anymore and from now, just leave me alone!” He squeaked.

That instant he turned his behind to walk out with an angry strut. He didn’t even look back to see Minhyuns reaction. Dongho expected that his evil family would just keep doing this to him until the end of time. The more he thought about things like that, the more his feet slowly dragged into a full stop, until he just stood. Minhyuns voice from a close distance woke him back up.

The man had walked to him after seeing Dongho suddenly standing lonesome and not going anywhere like he said he would. Minhyuns hand lightly tugged into Donghos elbow to get his attention. While Dongho winced and chewed his lip purposely trying not to look.

“Hey, the movie is about to start. Are you sure you still don’t want to watch it?” Minhyuns voice was sounded worried. 

Dongho felt his tense shoulders unwind. He had turned around, but only because he had felt bad for the wasted popcorn. “Well, I guess It would be a big waste otherwise?” Dongho admitted, and started to walk back quickly passing Minhyun.

The other man stopped him by holding his elbow and pulling him back to speak to him so he cpuld no longer avoid this. Donghos lips were thin and eyes guilty, they had been shot right down to the ground where they couldn’t be seen. He wanted to see that movie, but definitely not with a stranger, let alone someone who had come here under the impression that this were a date.

Minhyuns face had since changed to serious, “You are being too mean Kang, don’t just ignore me like this.” Hwang was just very good with acting, actually convincing Dongho that he had actually been hurt by him.

Dongho copied his grimace, looking down to his own feet for a split second to rethink if he really was so mean. “If I had known what this was, then I would not have come here.” The guy was only being truthful here.

Dongho had to speak up, “Don’t get me wrong dude. It’s because only go out with girls.” Dongho tried to reason with this guy, and he didn’t even know why.

“That is not the same thing that you told your family though?” Minhyun said in the most slimy way possible, the intention of mocking Dongho was clear. He continued, “You made an outlandish lie just to get people off your neck, is that right?”

Dongho tilt his head appalled by how much Minhyun was able to read into him. Was he seriously that obvious, Dongho became concerned with himself. Minhyun had to remind him about him being a scumbag so much.

“They will forever be unhappy if I don’t go out with someone before I turn thirty-something, and I really don’t want to disappoint everyone when I don’t either.” He pout his lip.

“Seems like you have made quite a fool of yourself Kang.” Minhyun laughed at the ground instead of directly at his face to be nice.

“My specialty.” The man threw finger guns at the other as if he were proud of it.

It just so happened that Minhyun had a special place in his heart for pea brain sized idiots like Dongho, so he was lucky. Right then he had thought of a quick plan in which he would be a willing participant. 

As soon as Minhyun had stopped his high pitched cackle he shared it with the other. “Then just pretend that we are indeed dating?”

“Huh?” Dongho acted like he had misheard it, his one foot became slightly lighter too, making him stumble a bit. Minhyun continued his idea, watching Donghos eyes as they grew wide real time. 

He spoke like he was pretty much convinced, “If you tell people that we are together, then your family wont bother you anymore. You can do what you wish.”

There was an obvious stutter in the voice of Kang, “Me, with a prick like you?” Dongho had entirely blanked out. Yet he snapped out of it the next instant to rise his pitched voice in self defense. 

“How the heck am I gonna do that? My family would expect me to bring a date home with me almost every holiday!” He spoke.

“Yeah, why not?” Minhyun said it so carelessly that Dongho almost wanted to hush him and cover up his mouth even if no one was around. “Have you lost your mind? Do you really expect me to take you to my house?” Dongho wanted to smack this pervert into the ground. 

Minhyun was quick to fire back, yet his voice sounded teasingly slow, “I mean—you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

The tallest could literally see Donghos pupils go from being as big as buttons to being tiny little dots. He could tell how desperate this man was after his lies had gotten him in this situation, it was fun for him to watch the guy finally give in.

“No! I’ll do it! I’ll do it damn it!” Dongho whined feeling like he was falling for blatant blackmail. There had be a brief pause, Dongho let the tense shoulders falls and the panting breaths fade away. He couldn’t believe he had to agreed to this fucking nonsense, but what other choice did he have.

He convinced himself that he just had to be thankful to Minhyun for even offering him this chance. The guy was surely just being generous here and clearly there would be no malicious intent as to why he would be doing all of this for Dongho, a person who he had just met.

“But then, you seriously won’t mind if I go out with other people? I thought you said you liked me?” Dongho suddenly took a polite step back remembering that Minhyun had a thing for him, for whatever reason.

The mans response was an unsettling, “Hmm.” Minhyun narrowed his eyes and became smug, “We aren’t actually dating, so I don’t care.”

Dongho instantly regained his vigor to be angry again. “Fuck, you bastard must have some kind of hidden motive?” His eyes became shifty at the tall male. 

Minhyun smiled with his mouth wide shut, “And so, what if?” He said just to watch Dongho twitch his left eyelid.

Was this really the type of a man that Kang family wished upon their own son. Dongho had to sigh, “Whatever. Just don’t actually try to put any moves on me or the deal is over, got it?”

Minhyun waved his wrist as if he was chasing imaginary flies, “I’m fine with just looking at you, pal.” He ended his joke with a wink. Dongho snort in annoyance. 

The two traded handshakes to finally seal the deal.

“So uh,” Minhyun took a step forward at the man who was short below him, almost close enough so the tips of their toes had met. “Are we still gonna catch that movie together?”

He nod. Right then, either from embarrassment or rage, Dongho became as red as a lobster in an instant. In the future, Minhyun was going to be bothersome.


	2. Chapter 2

The movie passed quickly, almost halfway through it Dongho had even forgotten about his supposed date sitting beside him. Minhyun wasn’t being weird or needlessly talking this time, it became easy to ignore him. All the action scenes and explosions happening on screen had enticed Dongho enough to make him forget entirely. 

His eyes were glued to the screen, and he would jolt in his seat in response to every big reveal. That whole time, Minhyun had been secretly stealing glances at him and the mans cup of popcorn that became less and less each time Dongho stole a handful with his claw like hand. 

The display of the big guy licking the salt off his fingers before diving in for another handful was icky, Minhyun found it rather cute. Kang was munching in his seat like a kid. 

“Was the movie good, Dongho?” Hwang spoke in a cheerful joking voice. The two were now sitting together inside of a café beside the cinema after coming out of the movie, both of them were drinking smoothies out of long juice glasses.

Dongho felt the imaginary buttons on his shirt popping from the amount of food and popcorn he had consumed this hour, but he still got room for one more meal. Given, as long as his date was paying for it. All Minhyun got back for asking was an ungrateful scoff, which he didn’t particularly mind, he actually found that annoying Kang like this was fairly entertaining.

Dongho could totally predict his sadistic nature, he began to glare at the other out of spite. “Hey, don’t make this weird. This is not some kind of date!” He announced.

Minhyun made a pouty face. “I am not! Just want to get to know you better in case your parents actually call to quiz me on you.”

Right, Dongho had just remembered about their pact. He supposed that it did make sense Minhyun should at least know a little bit about him for that sole reason.

“Yeah, I guess my aunt could do something like that.” He bit his lip, nervously running his eyes down at his glass drink. “Just tell me a little bit about yourself, silly.” Minhyun giggled, Dongho looked up with his lips sucked in tight and nodded brave.

“Well, to start off, after I failed my first university entrance exam, I went to be in the military. Now I am back studying to work for television.” He raised his eyes back at Minhyun for a brief moment to see the reaction, knowing his own life story was fairly uninteresting.

The guy wasn’t telling him to stop, fluttering his eyelashes and eagerly picking up every word. Dongho felt a bit odd, and changed a subject to quiz about Minhyun instead.

“What about you? You drive a cool car, so your family has gotta be loaded, right?” His bluntness surprised the other.

“My family? Well, I guess you could say that.” He laughed it off, “Although, my family is never home and they only know how to express parental affection by sending money when I am feeling sad. So yes, I drive lots of cool cars.” He spoke with a sly smile, enjoying every bit of Donghos confused reaction.

Dongho now got the confirmation he needed to prove that this guy must totally be a spoiled, rich brat. “What does your family do anyway?” He raised an eyebrow, pretending he wasn’t being so snoopy.

Minhyun felt like oversharing today, “My mother is a famous opera singer, and father an overseas movie director.” He let out two very famous names that Kang could recognize.

Dongho let his jaw hang a bit and nodded to display him understanding. Dongho was hoping to get into production too, and now he wasn’t trying to be slimy, but having this kind of connection was would be useful. Meanwhile Minhyun could already tell he had earned some cool points from Dongho, just by reading the boys face he was making. Even when he tried to hide it, he was still so expressive.

“Then how the hell did my aunt even find you?” He murmured to himself, but his date still overheard it. “My housemaid and your aunt are close. She showed me photos of you and said that you were head over heels for me, so I came out to you.” He spoke casually.

Dongho turned to face away to hide his frown upon hearing that this guy even had his own personal housemaid. Just how wealthy was this prick, he was instantly jealous of him again.

Minhyuns voice shifted to being stern, “Give me your number, so I could contact you from now on, Kang.” 

He began to take out his phone, but Dongho hesitated for a bit before taking out his own. Minhyun then promptly requested a follow back on social media sites from Dongho, to make their fake relationship more believable to others.

Before following the jerk back, Dongho had quickly scanned his photo gallery which was full of model like shots and side profiles. His eyebrows flocked like feathers of an angry bird when he saw the follow count on Minhyuns account, the guy was pretty much an online celebrity and all he did was just post pretty pictures of himself.

On the other side of the table they sat at, Minhyun grinned while reviewing Donghos account. It mostly contained pictures of his snotty cousins more than actual of pictures of himself. Dongho shot his nose up from his screen hearing Minhyun speak, “Should we upload a picture together too?”

The guy groaned. Then closed his eyes and sighed in defeat, “Fine, I guess.” 

He still really couldn’t believe himself for rolling with this stupid idea. Dongho was only digging himself a bigger hole. Minhyun knew that, but he wasn’t going to stop him, because he was having fun.

Minhyun huddled together with his grumpy boyfriend, almost cheek to cheek just so his enormous noggin would fit in the same frame with Donghos petite, much smaller sized head. The tall male smiled wide, while Kang looked more or less unhappy to be alive.

After the camera snap, they switched phones and took another photo, each of them simultaneously uploading their own version just like a real couple would. Dongho could only wish none of his actual future dates would see his online profile, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to explain what the heck was going on.

“We should add a matching caption.” Minhyun suggested, lining his phone screen up next to his boyfriends to show him. 

“We should not!” Dongho complained, also remembering that his mates followed him on here as well. Minhyun giggled and for his sake made the caption simple.

“Hanging out with my pal – how does that sound?” The man teased the other aggravated male. “Whatever.” Dongho gave up, letting his shoulders shrug.

“You should put a heart at the end!” Minhyuns pointer finger reached for Kangs screen in middle of him typing. 

“Hell no!” Dongho turned away from him in his seat, to block the phone with his shoulder. 

Because of that, Minhyuns sights soon shifted focus from the bright display to the writer himself, taking a liking to watching Donghos cute pink earlobes from close up.

They had been pierced, silver rings sprout from at the top of his lobe, and as if he could feel someone’s cool breath on them, he went to itch it with his stubby fingers, his fingernails trimmed down to a null.

The student cafe at Donghos university the next was buzzing with people, as students moved in and out in large groups. Aaron sat there bored by himself at a table waiting for Dongho to finish up after his martial arts practice or what not. But surely knowing the guy, Dongho had probably already forgotten all about him to instead flirt on someone way out of his own league.

This time however, his guess was wrong. Just as the lone boy was taking a long sip out of his drink straw, his eyes spotted Dongho who had just arrived indoors, and rest of what was in his mouth went right back down the straw. 

Excitedly he waved his hand. Alas, that guy did not at all enjoy such warm welcome. For some reason today Dongho had this grumpy look on his face. He seemed almost like a sissy child by throwing glares at Aaron.

“Thanks for coming out.” He expressed rare gratitude to his friend, despite the way he looked.

“Speaking of which.” Aaron put on the biggest open mouthed smile, wide to the point it was taking up two thirds of his face.

“Oh shut up, you jackass.” Dongho gestured a fist that would line up perfectly with the nose of his best friend. 

“Can’t help it, the word spreads quickly!” Aaron laughed, but Dongho was too annoyed to comment. “Who else knows about this?” Dongho demanded to know if anyone else had a clue.

“Relax, relax my dude!” The mans relieved whine made the tallest of the two even more restless. “Only I do, and besides I already know it’s all fake.” He reassured his friend.

“That part doesn’t worry me as much.” Dongho heard his friend whistle in awe at his words. “None of your business who I go out with.” The man warned him.

Aaron let out a quick sigh in place of a chuckle he held in. “You are always bragging, but now all of a sudden it’s not my business. Sure.”

He switched his tone, “The girls from student hall keep private messaging me asking me – who is that guy, who is that guy? He is so handsome!” Aaron set his elbow down on the table and posed for Dongho, pointing an index at him with the same arm.

“Handsome?” Dongho repeated in offense, “What the hell dude, what about me?” His question was ignored by his friend who went on to finish his own thought first.

“I told them – I don’t know, these two boys started meeting recently.” Aaron made a gun gesture with his fingers, acting as if he had just fired off, along with him mouthing the pang sound with his silent lips.

Donghos frown couldn’t get any worse, “Just don’t mention it to anyone aside from my close family, okay?” He added, “They all actually think I’m with that guy now.”

“Really?” Aaron smirked, he couldn’t believe that this guy had actually pulled it off, although Dongho looked way too ashamed with himself for doing it.

“Yeah, stupidest thing I’ve done. Had to suck my own thumb to sleep just so I wouldn’t have nightmares of regret.” He calmly recounted.

On the late evening when had announced that he began dating that bastard, they asked him all sorts of cringy questions. Dongho wished he could forget all of it.

“So Is your aunt finally happy now?” Aarons talk was full of chuckle, it was hard to speak to this guy when that way every word that came out of his mouth somehow sounded like a mocking remark.

“Oh she’s thrilled. She thought that if I didn’t start dating by the end of this year, I’d be never find anyone. They think I’d be rifling through dumpsters and selling the contents to imaginary people.” Dongho emptied his whole lung just to sigh.

“They even suggested to move in with him already. What do they want me to do, fuck that guy too?” He chuckled to himself, seeing such outcome as fairly unlikely.

Aaron laughed along with him, but the dark imagery of what was being described manifested in his mind for longer than necessary. 

“Why not move in? Everyone probably wants to get you out of their house since you are an adult now.” Aaron saw reason.

Dongho shyly shook his head, he hated living and sharing the same bedroom with like five other kids, none of them even his own, yet he would probably hate rooming with that bratty, tall jerk a whole lot more. No way in hell.

“So when are you going to hang out with that guy again anyways?” Aaron blinked his long lashes at the other. Donghos answer came quick like a lightning strike, “Hopefully never.” 

“I don’t even want to meet that weirdo!” He complained. “How come?” Aarons mouth filled with laughter, he found his friend hilarious for saying that.

Indeed, Dongho knew he was being quite ridiculous, yet he just couldn’t help it. The night before this he even ended up having nightmares about that guy chasing him in his sleep. 

“He just looks like the type of guy, you know? All scummy and stuff.” Dongho shuddered.

“He really can’t be all that bad, can you at least show me how the guy looks like?” Aaron decided to ask, whilst hoping to earn some quick laughs if Dongho had been set up with some guy with rotting teeth.

“Haven’t you checked online already?” Dongho raised a brow. “Bro, why would I ever be on your profile looking at your stupid pictures?” Aaron made the other groan.

Dongho didn’t see much harm in it, he took out his phone and gave it to the other, already predicting that Aaron would make some weird comments though. 

“Hold on there partner, is that really him?” Instead Aaron had gulped, eyes becoming big as owls.

Dongho really didn’t like the face Aaron was making – his eyebrows knitted together in worry and teeth pulled back his bottom lip. In those pictures him stood a guy like three stories high with handsome face and a pretty smile.

Aaron had gone silent, absolutely mute at the sight of such good-looking guy. In those pictures, Minhyun was wearing all expensive shit, fabrics that looked like they were straight out of a model magazine. The guy was obviously fucking loaded, and Dongho had no fucking clue who he was dealing with.

Aarons eyes narrowed seeing the big and bulky Dongho sitting in front of him, and then returned to the tall and slander Minhyun on the screen – the two looked like they had absolutely nothing in common. It was unfathomable to imagine that these to could ever in an actual relationship, but after a while the idea of it started to grow on him.

“I must say, you guys would actually look so cute together.” Aaron quietly teased his friend who growled like a lion the next minute, almost pouncing up from his seat to jump at him.

Just as Dongho was about to throw hands, their table was approached by more students. The guy with the raised fist had to lean it behind his own head, pretending he had raised it only to scatter some dandruff.

“Can we join you all?” A guy with boney legs and a book bag thrown over his shoulder leaned his head down before cutting into the conversation, trying not to be disruptive.

“Um, yeah sure Jonghyun.” Dongho actually welcomed company that wasn’t just this one other dumb jackass. He shot laser eyes at Aaron.

“As long as you don’t bring Choi Mingi over here.” He warned, “He has been especially annoying this week.”

“Hey, guys!” A moment later another young male, who happened to perfectly match Donghos description had leaped to sit in the only spare chair left. 

The only reason Dongho knew how to deal with that brat Hwang, was because Mingi was much worse than him. The friend was wearing flashy brand clothing very much like Minhyun, but his style and pattern was more extravagant. A droopy flower printed sheer shirt draped over his shoulders like a robe, and more holes in his skinny jeans than one could count on fingers. 

Mingis eyes became narrow attracted by the phone Aaron was still holding up, he wasn’t shy to even lean his neck in a bit to stare dangerously close to the screen. “Who is this guy?” The tallest of the friends twitched his nostrils as if he could smell the dude in the image.

Immediately feeling like a sly piece of shit, Aaron decided to joke on the expense his best friend, “Oh, its Donghos new boyfriend!” He teased.

The two newcomers obviously did take it as a silly joke, but that was up until they saw Donghos reaction. The guy had lost his temper.

“Aaron fuck—shut up!” Everyone around the table went completely silent.

“Wait.” Mingi whispered first, “You are not kidding?” At the same time, from underneath the table came a creak, Aaron had slightly angled the soles of his shoes towards the exit of the building.

The eyes were all on Dongho now, and overtime his face had gone more and more red. “It’s not like that guys, I can explain.” He begged for their mercy. Yet his plea was ignored, the two friends now looked at him in awe.

“Holy shit, Dongho! This is incredible.” Mingi cursed while Jonghyun was still trying to slowly process all of it.

“Since when!” The youngest of the bunch was baffled by the reveal, but his question was ignored by Dongho himself, so he turned back to Aaron who definitely knew something.

Aaron looked devastated that he had blown Donghis secret so quickly. “I plead the fifth.” The ssme guy sounded like he was about to burst into tears any second.

“What on earth does that even mean?” Mingi stopped to raise a confused eyebrow at Aaron for speaking some weird nonsense again.

All of a sudden Jonghyun had finally cut in, “Oh, Dongho that’s ok! You can totally trust us!” He proceeded to quickly sit down into Mingis lap like the guy wasn’t even there, muffling his squeak underneath him.

Dongho panicked, “I never said any of that guys! You are putting words into my mouth!”

“Kang, I am sorry.” Aaron spoke with his voice shaky and full of regret knowing that his friend was absolutely doomed and in two days time the whole nation will know about him.

Dongho fucking hated these guys. However, he stopped himself from saying the actual truth, figuring that it would be more convincing if his friends weren’t in on the lie, and rather believed it to be true as well. In the end, he lowered his head into a nod.

Mingi and Jonghyun both gasped at the revelation while Aaron hiccupped. 

“So it is true.” Jonghyun saw his friends eyes trembling in his sockets and mistook it for fear. “I truly never knew.” He apologized, feeling guilty for failing to realize this sooner.

After being put on the spot like that, Dongho had no clue how to help himself get out of this. He decided to just text them and explain everything later instead, as for now he wished to run for the hills in shame.

“It was nice seeing the most of you today.” Dongho lied and stood from the table to run and fall face down into some drain to hopefully drown himself for good.

Mingi freed his chin from being stuck behind Jonghyuns shoulder. “Hey, is it because you gonna go meet him right now?” He teased.

Dongho felt like he legally didn’t have to answer that, and so he did not because he didn’t want to admit that it was true. In order to be convincing, everyone needed to know that the two actually hanged out together, there was no better way than to have Hwang roll up in his car right to the guys doorstep.

Before heading straight to the parking lot to wait around for Minhyun to come and give him a ride as they had arranged, Dongho glanced back at his crowd again. The last he saw were the sincere expressions of all of his friends sitting back there all already in middle of shit talking him behind his back. 

However, their faces were different. Aaron was scared to get pulled by the ears next time Dongho would meet him. Jonghyun was concerned like always, but Mingi would smirk.

Dongho had met the eyes with the last guy for only a split second, but Mingi already had been nastily glaring at him head on like he knew something. This meant that the guy had not believed the lie fully, Dongho could tell.


	3. Chapter 3

A couple of days had quickly passed by. Dongho never expected for his stupid plan to last this long. No one suspected a thing yet, believing that Dongho was finally actually dating someone – anyone at this point.

Because of that, it was easier for him to sneak out of the house to meet up with his actual dates, alas done in secret. Earlier today, him and his brand new female date were out in public chatting together at a bowling alley near his home. Dongho couldn’t afford anything fancier than that partially, because clearly the guy had no money of his own, yet he still dared to act flashy to impress his date.

Of course the woman saw right through him, only pretending to giggle and laughing along to Donghos godawful taste in jokes, at least the guy was easy to look at. Otherwise he was all looks and no brains.

Dongho was just in middle of a punchline for one of his jokes and the woman was drinking from her straw, when out of a sudden Dongho stopped like he had been shot. His date bent her neck back to look into the direction where his eyes had become stuck on.

There were familiar faces appearing nearby, his very own cousins had come here to play after school. In that short moment, Dongho had no idea if he had to duck down to hide himself or plain hide underneath the legs of the table.

“Lord, what are you doing Kang?” The long haired woman made an engrossed grimace watching as the man attempted to screw his spine backwards in his seat to lean his face out of sight.

He answered with a quiet shout, “Gotta hide before anyone can see me!” He answered.

“Who can see you?” She didn’t keep her voice down to match with Donghos. In confusion she continued to view the guy now trying to slide himself lower on the seat.

“Those fiends! They are going to think that I am going behind that other bastards back!” He responded to the question, even though he had never mentioned his affiliation with Minhyun to her beforehand. In fact, he would rather die than to tell anyone about him.

“Huh? The back of who?” She widened her eyes in both disgust and terror. 

“I’ll explain later.” He ducked his own head down in preparation to dive under, only to be stopped as the woman’s dagger sharp nails yanked him back up by the back of his shirt collar.

“Ow! Ow!” He shot his chin up feeling a fresh scratch on the back of his neck. 

As soon as he had winced his eyes open, he knew not to complain. The look on that woman’s face was absolutely murderous. In desperation, he smiled directly at her, expecting for her to go easy on him for bot disclosing some things first. The last he saw was her frown and her hand which was already raised into a claw, and from there everything when dark for a while.

And that is how Dongho had now ended up sitting on the couch of his aunts living room with his eyes pointed guilty at the floor, as that wicked woman passed back and forth only metres away from his feet. He was slouched forward and knees spread nervously wide, right before she would yell he prepared himself with a slow exhale.

A demanding shrill voice interrupted his deep longing. After getting decked in the face, his own cousins had been the ones who had taken Dongho home where he would have to explain the situation himself.

He had gotten from an already mildly infuriating situation into a way worse one. Now his aunt accused him of playing with Minhyuns feelings on purpose. Even if it was plain obvious that Dongho was on a date with someone else and never had interest in Minhyun to begin with.

She was so convinced that Dongho was with Minhyun that the guy believed that if she actually found out Dongho had been lying about that just to get away with hooking up with more women, he would be kicked from the house. There was no choice, but to continue making up more lies.

The lone man held his bruised cheek and sulked like a puppy, raising his head to stare head-on into the traffic of the woman angrily walking up and down the room, acting like she was about to whip out a belt on him.

This was all because of Hwang Minhyun, that bastard – all of this was his fault. All of it. He fell his back limp into the couch seat to whine from being so agitated. 

While the woman would scold him, four small heads would poke out from behind the doorframe and eavesdrop on the conversation. Dongho could see it in those kids mocking eyes, they already knew the full story. While he had sworn to remain quiet.

The annoyed Dongho wasn’t even listening to what the woman was saying, up until his ears picked up something horrendous that was said by her. She suggested that her nephew should prove himself by moving in with his supposed boyfriend. 

The youth choked on his own spit, acting like he had almost swallowed up a ball of hair.

“You want me to go live with that guy?” The woman’s face didn’t change it, she really meant it. “—With that guy?” Dongho stressed.

It took him another second to realize that the stern look of his aunt meant that Dongho wouldn’t be able to buy out of this anymore. He whined like a kid, “How could you make me to move into someone else’s home?”

The woman wasn’t impressed by Dongho suddenly dropping the formalities to talk back at her like this, “Well, he said he would be okay with it.” She told him.

Dongho shot his eyes to the side, he was gritting his teeth together, “Of course Hwang Minhyun, that bastard, would be.” He secretly spoke under his own breath.

Classical instrumental music filled a large ball like room, there was a long table dressed in white that stretched from one end of the room of the other. It’s silverware occasionally clinked against expensive porcelain in the hands of the formally dressed sitting around for a dinner meal.

It wasn’t common for Minhyuns family to rent out an entire restaurant hall just to dine here as full family, although it counted only as half of the family for Minhyun. His film director father sat at the very head of the table, surrounded by his new wife and Minhyuns younger step-sisters. They were snobby and spoiled by his rich father, neither of them ever saw him as their brother.

Therefore, Minhyun felt like the odd one out, the only person who did not belong in this family. He tried not to show it, silently cutting apart his food with a silver cutting knife into the smallest pieces just to stall, as his appetite had left him the minute he had come in.

The wife of his father was currently boasting about her great daughters to her husband, while the man had been away living abroad. They had been studying hard to become big screen film directors just like him.

Minhyun however found no interest in that, he was more like his mother, interested in stage play. Maybe because he was so similar to her was why his step-mom and her whole family despised him so much.

“Our youngest has been studying so hard on her own to prepare for the exams, she is currently on the top of her class!” The older woman wearing the most expensive jewellery boasted about her high school aged daughter who had stuffed her cheeks with pride.

Minhyun couldn’t help but to chuckle knowing the woman was lying about her daughter. Even with tutors neither of his sisters could even pass a mock-test with a halfway decent grade. It didn’t matter much anyways because with the connections that the family had, the daughters were already guaranteed to enrol in any good school they wished for.

The wife was in middle of a laugh when Minhyun, sitting furthest away down the long table clumsily choked on his bit of food in the background. Instead of passing the young Hwang a napkin, the woman flashed angry eyes, making him feel guilty all over again. Soon everyone had their sights on him as well.

The father began to notice his son who was now nervous and shy to raise his eyes, he spoke to him in a deep voice full of grunt. “What about your studies Minhyun, you’re in university already.” He asked.

Before he could even open his lips to respond to his father, the wife had cut in, “Doing musical theatre is nothing special. You need actual talent to ever have the chance to stand out in that field.” She insulted Minhyun, but his father didn’t bat an eye.

He was a stern, quiet man and Minhyun saw him less as a father figure and more as a mentor, one he was scared to bone of disappointing. Minhyun couldn’t defend himself at all.

“Right, he is always so stiff.” The eldest daughter just chuckled along as Minhyun continued to stare down at his food with the same static expression on his face, giving her more confirmation.

His step mother was convinced that he would never succeed, and she didn’t want him to succeed before her own daughters. She agreed.

Minhyun had enough of this. He surprised everyone by suddenly standing up. “I am sorry, I need to go to the washroom.” The tall male didn’t want to look at their offended faces as he headed to the restaurants bathroom as just an excuse to leave.

Minhyun headed inside the bathroom where a battered reflection of himself waited above a sink. He looked closer, sighing when noticing that his skin had been getting worse these days, probably from the stress. To calm down, he took five more deep breaths and then decided that he should stay, because it would only bring him trouble of he didn’t. His plans took a halt however, when a buzz went off in his pocket.

Minhyun unlocked his phone to read a text sent to him by Dongho who he hadn’t last seen in days. It read; “Minhyun, you gotta see me, dude. This is urgent!” 

Dongho sat on the edge of a bathtub inside of his own home, the only place remotely quiet and safe from teething kids. The man continued to sulk at his phone still thinking about earlier when his female date had ditched him. It wasn’t too bad though, he still had other numbers saved because he went around so much.

Right now for a change, more than waiting for a call-back from another girl, he waited for a text from that bastard Hwang who was not responding a whole lot. Dongho assumed that he must be here by now then so he stood to exit his shelter. 

By pushing open the bathroom door he accidentally had disrupted at least three of his teenage cousins leaning ear glued to the same bathroom door from the other side.

“What on earth are you kids doing?” He scolded them. The rascals weren’t trying to hide their intent for eavesdropping at all.

“I thought you were going to phone call with your boyfriend.” They mocked. None of the believed that Dongho would actually ever date a guy by now. He flashed his teeth like a growling dog and rushed past everyone to stand at the door and put on his outdoor shoes.

“I’ll tell everyone!” One of the teenagers threw a yell at Donghos back, threatening to reveal the truth. But the pitch of the scream is what offended Dongho the most.

“Go ahead then!” Dongho shouted back. The man only grabbed a jacket and left his house, but not before slamming the door loud enough for neighbours to hear.

Dongho had ran half a mile or so from his house, finding a playground spot where he had arranged to meet Minhyun in a follow up text. This place was secluded, meaning that nobody would ever see them meet here. Dongho wanted it to be this way, since he didn’t want to be seen in public with this jerk under normal conditions.

Because of this whole charade, Dongho had grown conflicted. He desperately wanted to buy out of it already. Without telling Minhyun why, he had asked him to be here to discuss with him parting ways. As by now that seemed like the only reasonable thing to do.

His feet drifted in the sand when noticing a small figure sitting on the swing in the distance. Undoubtedly, it was Minhyun. Dongho had not expected for him to be here so soon already.

Oddly today, he looked a little sad. His face looked dull without his usual nasty smirk he always had when with Kang. Instead, he was busy staring at the ground, his swing was not even moving aside from all the movement that came from shoes that rocked back and forth in the dirt. 

The man was wearing all formal attire, not suit for a walk to a wet playground park. To prove it, the ends of his beige pants had been stained with dirt, and so were his polished expensive looking shoes, yet Minhyun didn’t seem to care. He kept staring down, not even noticing that Dongho had arrived to stand right by his feet.

“Damn, you look sad as hell sitting out here like this, dude. Did something— actually, never mind.” Dongho scratched behind his head, this was none of his business.

Minhyun took note of Dongho being the observing type, somewhere underneath all that young adult angst hid someone who deeply cared for others. However, at the same time Dongho was too proud to admit such a thing about himself to Hwang yet, so Minhyun figured that he would have a lot of fun messing with the guy.

His eyes focused on the neck of the man he was still scratching, a red spot like bruise stood there. Minhyun could only assume it was left there by one of the guys numerous flings. He smiled at the man, it was wide, forced and awkward. 

“Feel better already just by you being here.” The man teased, causing the other guy to snort at him.

Before Dongho could change his mind and ask Minhyun what was his deal with ending up here like this, the tall man purposely spoke over him, “So what’s up with you? You haven’t even called me for days, but now you want me to come straight to your neighbourhood like this?”

Dongho rolled his eyes to the ground, speaking in a low and ashamed voice. “It was just easier to explain it in person than over the phone.” At this point Minhyun was starting to get enticed. 

“Explain it then.” Minhyun spoke.

The man became nervous to speak, but as soon as he started his quickened rambling didn’t end soon, “Some of my family is already suspecting that I had lied from the very start. I mean, I already told them the truth then, but it was my aunt who choose to believe whatever she wanted to believe.”

“At this point, if she it all figures out now, I am afraid she will be really hurt because of me lying to her face about ever dating you.” Donghos words sounded shaky and afraid, he stood there shuddering while thinking what could happen to him.

He took a sharp breath before finishing, “I got caught hanging out with someone else, had to tell her that I did it to make you jealous.”

“Do I really look like the kind of person that would ever do something like that?” He suddenly spoke up all regretful, angry at himself.

Minhyun chuckled, as he wasn’t easily jealous anyways. Much like Dongho, his relationships tend to be short and underdeveloped, but unlike him he at least wanted to try and get to that point where he would feel jealousy. Coincidentally, currently Dongho was the roadblock that was keeping him from actually dating anyone, as for the time being Minhyun had to pretend to date this guy.

Dongho noticed no change in the way Minhyun looked at him, he was unmoved by the whole story. Dongho began to panic as this guy was the only one who could give him any help.

“You need to help me out here, please.” He had changed his mind about breaking it off with Hwang after his own rant. Now he begged before the wide eyed Minhyun, who couldn’t believe the guy would ever have gotten this fucked up.

Minhyun crossed his arms, acting cautious around Dongho. “Do you want to break up with me then?” He tilt his head trying to understand the rambling man.

“Do you want me to die? My auntie thinks you are perfect in every way, so if I break up with you I will get my head ripped off for it.” Dongho admitted his defeat, cracking a small chuckle in middle of his own demise.

He collected himself, but he still sounded wounded, “Of course I want to end this. But I can’t and you are my only choice.”

“Settle down, I can keep doing this for as long as you want me to.” Minhyun tried to calm the mans rush, the compassion came with a sinister smirk suddenly appearing on his face.

“Really?” Dongho now smiled in relief, he smiled like his life had just been saved. Minhyun nod.

“You know, if you never act like we are dating then naturally people won’t trust your story.” He explained to the very distressed Dongho who by the next minute had erupted into a loud yelp, “How do I do that?”

The tall male straightened his back and cleared his throat. There was really nothing more awkward that trying to explain to Dongho that in order to fool people they should do all the things couples do. Apparently this concept was too foreign with Kang who had never dated a guy before.

Minhyun lined his words up perfectly to try to sugar-coat it, instead of striking fear into Dongho by just being direct. “You know like hugging and holding hands, you don’t mind being suddenly hugged right?”

“I guess.” The short man shrugged, showing that if it was a part of pretending to date Minhyun, then he would probably be indifferent to it. As long as it didn’t involve anything more than that.

Minhyuns smirk grew even more pleased to show his pretend boyfriend exactly how it should be done. He stayed silent while his eyes began to shift from right to left and he mischievously bit his own lip to muffle a huge smile. 

Before the short male could realize what was happening to him, he had been pulled into a hug by the other man. The guy hugging him was hellishly tall, so Donghos face would sink into the neck when hugged. Dongho was forced to smell him, although his skin smelled nice of flowery perfume up close, nothing like the guys he shared the gym locker rooms with.

Dongho suddenly realized he couldn’t pull back anymore, the jerk had one hand on the back on his waist and the other on the nape of his neck, both holding onto him like it was a matter of life and death.

A sweet, deep voice made him freeze in place like a statue. “Dongho—” Minhyuns lips were almost right next to the mans earlobe, a wave of chills ran up and then retreated down the back of his neck as Minhyun had spoken.

“Is this comfortable with you?” He asked.

“Uhhg—” Dongho made a sound that didn’t sound like a proper answer. This caused for the tallest took a brief pause, and his own laugh made him immediately break out of his character.

“We are only acting, but why are your ears this red all of a sudden?” Minhyun switched to speak in his normal, obnoxious voice again.

“Bastard, if you don’t let go of me—” Dongho mumbled, while his face was still stuffed into the crook his boyfriends neck. The next second he was freed, Dongho fell back almost exhausted after what felt like a struggle.

He began wiping his shirt like it had been infected, and his face had become as just red as his ears, he looked like a damn lobster. Minhyun noted the fact, secretly feeling delighted at the chance to make him all flustered.

“See, its not so bad, is it?” Minhyun happily explained his motive. Dongho acted surprised to admit it, “No, it wasn’t.” 

It was rather nice and comforting, more than it was annoying and clingy. It felt like an actually sincere hug given to you by a friend. Dongho could not recall the last time one of his bros had hugged him, he had always turned everyone down because he thought he would hate it.

“You should get used to this if you really want to keep this up.” Minhyun spoke as if Dongho always had the chance to opt out of fake dating if he didn’t want to do all this, but to feeble minded Dongho, there was no other way than this if he wanted to continue living on this earth.

Dongho suddenly decided to yell at the other man, as if his loud voice could distract Minhyun from noticing how red his cheeks had become. “Just don’t do that again without a warning, it gets really weird when you’re being too convincing, right?”

Minhyun replied with an honest snort. “It’s called method acting, punk.” He mocked Dongho, who now eyed him up and down like he was looking for a place to kick him, offended my the ill nickname.

The tallest added, “You also got to be more careful about accidentally running into anyone you know in public while you’re with someone else.”

Dongho was still angry at the guy for nothing at every turn, but Minhyun was right. “Alright. We got this then.” He pumped himself up.

The conversation appeared to have ended already, but yet the two men still stood around staring at one another like idiots until the tallest decided to speak.

“Want me to give you an obvious hickey?” Minhyun was making the nastiest know it all smirk at Dongho.

“Shut up.” Dongho grunt like he was in pain just by hearing that. “Just go home first.” He spoke, looking at Minhyuns still stained shoes and noticing how his car wasn’t parked anywhere nearby meant a long walk.

“No, you first.” Minhyun joked in return.

Dongho broke into a small chuckle, one that made Minhyuns eyes lit up. Dongho never noticed that, he was staring at the ground now, sinking deep in thought. 

He had become so miserable. Because as long as this went on, he was totally dependant on Hwang. He owed to that guy and he was scared to imagine how he could ever pay the bastard back after this.

Meanwhile Minhyun indeed found Dongho highly enticing, like a puzzle luring you in to be solved. Minhyun liked Dongho on first sight, he still liked him even now after being rejected. Perhaps, that is what had made Minhyun even more curious of him – the fact that never before a man, straight or not, had turned Minhyun down.

A sudden drop of wet had landed on the tip of Donghos nose, causing him to blink in surprise, then another one on his cheek. Not even moments later his shoulders were collecting droplets of what appeared to be rain.

The tall male had his head in his clouds as he was just blatantly staring at Donghos face, ignoring the wind picking up behind them.

He woke up and spoke fondly, “Hurry back. Your hands are already freezing out here.” He described the hand that he wished to hold. 

“Oh?” Dongho looked at his own palm like an idiot, finding it pale and sore from the chilly cold. Then he proceeded shrugged Minhyun off for the kind advice.

Without a goodbye the shortest did as told. Minhyun shoved his own freezing hands back inside of his pockets and watched the man finally leave. He was thankful for the small distraction that the guy had bought today.

Minhyun opened his phone to see if he had any missed calls from his angry parents after he had snuck out of the family dinner to chase Dongho, but as expected his screen stood empty.


	4. Chapter 4

Minhyun never expected for Dongho to get into contact with him so soon after their last meeting on that day.

By following instructions, Minhyun had arrived to their designated meeting spot – a stone shore of a large river that split the large city into two.

There was a biking path that stretched along side the length of the river, hugged by a plain of flat grass which was already occupied by the local people enjoying the weather that had become warmer.

Indeed, the weather had become nicer these days, Minhyun never really went outside just to enjoy the local parks, so it felt refreshing to be outside during a windless day. The rays of sun warmed rivers waves, lush tall trees drew long shadows in the far distance.

Minhyun had come right after receiving quite the ominous text from Dongho that only stated his coordinates and nothing else. Dongho had purposely done so, secretly hoping to himself that the bastard wouldn’t actually show up, but alas here he was – clumsily jogging towards Kang.

Minhyun skipped ahead, passing couples and families with strollers walking down the same path, until he neared a crowd of children surrounding a poor snack bar vendor trying his best to listen to all of the needy, hungry voices at once.

Among them stood Dongho. He was the only one who wasn’t excited for snacks, maybe the fact that he was the only one with his wallet out had something to do with it.

Minhyun sped his walk to greet the man by showing his signature wide grin. Donghos eyes spotted him before his last few steps, and he hissed in air into his mouth through gritted teeth feeling sorry for himself now that this guy too was here to make his day awful.

There were at least five kids running rampant before Donghos distressed eyes, none of them were tall enough to be higher than up to Minhyuns waist. One of them even sat on Donghos shoulders, using the pierced ears as handles. Dongho looked like he had been forced to babysit.

The kids obviously belonged to his aunt, yet the scary part was that since Dongho was related to them, they all had the same face as him as well. One of these kids could even be his own and Minhyun would never know.

Thus, that very thought became his opening line, “Do you have kids?” Minhyun jokingly referred to either one of these, as any of them could be fathered by Dongho.

The question made Dongho let out a quick snicker, “None that I know of.” He dared to be boastful.

Donghos once pouty expression changed as soon as he saw Minhyun draw his own wallet from his pocket to be offering to pay for the kids meals in his place. The short male was pleasantly surprised, but he still supressed the urge to thank Minhyun, suspecting that the guy had only done it to somehow flex on him.

Instead, Dongho shyly lowered his head and brought an arm to itch the back of his neck. His other hand tugged onto the coat of Minhyuns long elbow and pulled him further off to the side after the payment had been made.

“Hey, Hwang.” His greeting was awfully forced, but it still made Minhyun smile. “So, why did you invite me all the way out here?” The tall male asked in return.

Dongho spoke like he was apologizing, “My auntie wanted to invite you.” Minhyun promptly glanced into the far distance and saw the familiar a looking woman and her kids preparing to lay down a picnic table. 

“Ah, I see.” He noted, slightly let down Dongho had not invited him by his own volition. 

“Thank you for coming.” Dongho still appreciated that Minhyun had come to cover for his ass, no matter how much he despised him. “No problem.” Minhyun laughed.

After seeing that smile fade, the short man went silent, as if mentally preparing himself, he took a deep breath to fill his lungs as if he was dive himself into that very river. Dongho wished he were doing that instead of what he did next instead.

Minhyuns sights pointed down at Donghos little hand cup his own and taking a hold of it. The guy then lead his boyfriend to the picnic table where everyone could see them hold said hands. He was literally dying of embarrassment inside, but Minhyun only happily chuckled like he always did, making Dongho feel even more hopeless.

Minhyuns appearance definitely attracted some stares there, but he was talkative and in a joking mood, so everyone quickly grew to like him and his numerous stories to tell, well everyone but Dongho.

The short man was bored out of his mind, listening to Minhyun talk only about himself – The perfect student with the best grades Minhyun, the born with a silver spoon in his mouth and bright future ahead of him Minhyun. Dongho kept yawning.

But his family absolutely adored him, and even his cousins had adopted Minhyun as their new cool uncle. Suddenly Dongho felt more excluded from his own family, just sitting in the middle trying to find a moment to cut in and start his own conversation. He never had the luck.

After all that talking and answering questions, even Minhyun could admit that his throat had gone dry. He reached for a drink, not looking who’s it was, and just as he was about to put the straw to his lips Dongho slapped his fingers.

“Get your own glass.” Dongho grunt, not instantly recognizing the glares his family sent his way after he had bullied their new favorite son in law.

Dongho remembered about the whole pretending to be boyfriends thing, to fix it he was taking out another spare paper straw and dipping it into his juice drink. Two straws sat hugging one another in one shared glass of juice.

For his sake, Minhyun didn’t touch his drink and opted to just thirst instead. Another discussion was fired up quickly after, Dongho drooped his shoulders back down trying to zone out the voices.

Minhyun acting background helped him greatly. He was damn convincing when pretending to be Donghos boyfriend. He had been always glancing back at him to give Dongho smiles and purposely-not-purposely brush his hand over Donghos.

Dongho didn’t mind it so much anymore, and he learned not to roll his eyes every time Minhyun did it anymore. Although now his main concern was how much his auntie had grown attached to Minhyun being part of the family. It made Dongho feel bad that it was all a lie. 

As Dongho waited for Minhyun to stop talking he was already in the process of growing a beard, his eyes full of longing while watching the sun slowly set behind the horizon, as it felt like many seasons had already passed.

The short male finally excused himself from the table claiming that he needed to stretch his legs just so he could get away from Minhyun and his dull, boring conversations. However he quickly forgot that Minhyun was still in character acting as his boyfriend and would absolutely follow him everywhere he went.

Dongho went to the edge of the water, pressing his elbows down on the railing and wistfully staring into the slow waves. The top of the river sparkled in orange, as the sun sunk behind the forest of skyscrapers right across the same river.

The shortest didn’t mind Minhyun copying him and standing beside him, as long as he was silent like this. Minhyun was laying his chin inside of his own elbow, hiding his lips, and staring at Dongho stare at the water. Dongho looked pretty under a soft orange glow of the setting sun.

“They love you more than me already, seems like.” Dongho spoke, eyes still fixed on the river almost as if there was something in the water. 

“—Even though you are a guy and all, since they expected me to marry a girl instead.” He added.

Then Minhyun bobbed his head down and back up while chuckling, “Are you jealous?” A silly smile crept up on Donghos face, he jokingly glared at Minhyun from the corner of his vision, “Won’t lie about it.”

The tall man smiled back and after some thinking he spoke to thank Dongho, “I had fun today. I had never gone on a picnic with my family before.”

“Huh?” Dongho acted both worried and surprised. His expressions only further amused Minhyun. “Are you not close with your parents?” Dongho didn’t realize he was being a bit intrusive, but Minhyun didn’t really mind. 

“Nope.” He shrug.

“When I was a kid they were away from home so much that even I didn’t even know who my real parents were.” Minhyun gave an example that made Dongho grow wrinkles of concern, he felt bad.

“You mean, you forgot what they looked like?” Dongho watched Minhyun nod.

“Instead of my own mother, I had a nanny take care of me, so overtime I grew to believe that she was my mom.” He continued after reviewing the look of horror on Donghos face.

“Then one day my real mom came back home and I did not even recognize her. She witnessed me calling the other woman my mom – so she fired her.” Minhyun finished.

Dongho went dead silent. He could not imagine himself in Minhyuns shoes as from birth he had been always surrounded by his extended family with more cousins, siblings and more uncles than there was to count.

“You are really lucky Dongho.” Minhyun spoke, causing Dongho to shrug. “Perhaps, too lucky. He did a mental count of all kids that weren’t his that he had to babysit daily.

The two continued being there after that hard conversation, overtime Dongho became pressured to say something, anything nice. “You know, now that I think about it, you’re actually pretty cool Minhyun.” He cheered.

“Really, now? What did you think of me before?” Minhyun pretended to be surprised, in that moment Dongho ran short of words.

“I dunno. Spoiled and bratty.” He shrugged again, trying to hide the fact he had become anxious over seemingly nothing. “That would be like looking right into a mirror wouldn’t it?” Minhyun mocked him, but this time Dongho had nervously laughed along instead of being angry.

“You jerk. Better watch what you say.” He swore through laughter that slowly and overtime had become genuine.

Moments after their laughs faded, and they only remained standing face to face and smiling. Out of nowhere Dongho leaned at the other, rising to his tippy toes to meet Minhyuns height. The tallest jolted in surprise in reaction to Dongho hugging him, pretending to kiss his cheek. Then right after he retreated, his own cheeks burning with red.

“Don’t get the wrong idea. They were watching us.” Dongho explained and was right, everyone from his family stared at the two men talking on the rivers shore.

Minhyun immediately rushed to tease him. “You are really committed to your role.”

In that moment, Dongho wished he could be more mad, angry enough to make himself say something mean back to Minhyun. He made a squeaky whine and ran back to his family instead of showing to the bastard how shy he was.

As soon as the two men returned to help auntie pack up from the picnic, child voices were already demanding to see Minhyun again.

“Dongho, you have to bring Minhyun to the fireworks!” They repeated. 

“Fireworks?” Minhyun poked his nose up. Dongho was forced to explain. “There’s this annual firework show happening just out of town. Me and my friends are going to stay there for it overnight.”

“And us!” The voices of his cousins wanted to feel included. Minhyun understood the implication that it was a strictly friends only event, and he wasn’t welcome by Dongho.

The chatter inside of the university dining hall was as loud as always when Aaron and Choi Mingi shared a dining table. Jonghyun arrived late, pulling out a chair from another table to join them. He threw his book bag off his shoulder and put it down into his lap over his legs.

Mingi noticed Jonghyun and spoke, “Oh hey! We were just talking about Dongho and we needed your second expert opinion!”

“About what?” The guy glanced over at Aaron who was already signalling at him to cover his ears before Mingi says some nonsense again.

“Between Dongho and his boyfriend – Who goes in who?” Mingi held an invisible mic in his hand under Jonghyuns chin as if he was doing an interview. 

Jonghyun pretended to think while actually frantically digging into his book bag to find earphones and listen to music, which would hopefully help him un-hear whatever the fuck Mingi had said to him just now.

That was right when Dongho had decided to show up behind them all popping out of nowhere. In terror, Mingi almost hissed like a cat, bouncing up in his seat.

“Hey bros.” He introduced, running sweaty after a martial arts practice again. Luckily he had not arrived to the table just in time to hear Mingi talk, otherwise that same man would be a ghost by now.

Without waiting for a welcome, Dongho plopped down to eat his food, head lowered close to his plate, ravaging it like a hungry beast. It took him a while to notice that everyone had been staring at him, thinking the same thing – about his boyfriend. Dongho had not told the a thing about him yet.

Mingi suddenly wore a smirk, the first red flag, he was about to bring it up too. Aaron grew wary watching the sentence form on his lips. Obviously Mingi knew something was not right about Donghos new supposed relationship, but he had not said a thing as of yet.

“Hey, dimwit.” Mingi attracted attention of both Dongho and Jonghyun. 

“Are you still dating that guy by the way? Seems like you never mention him.” He spoke teasingly, purposely trying to trick Dongho into admitting that he was lying about something.

It took the guy a second to come up with an excuse, in Mingis eyes, a second was too late. “Why would I tell you anything? It’s my private business.” Dongho growled.

“I don’t know dude. You usually can’t shut up whenever you talk about your girlfriends?” Mingi pointed out. By then Aaron was literally sweating pinballs.

“It’s okay to trust us Dongho.” Jonghyun pitched in, “You know were accepting of you, we don’t care who you date, so you can speak freely around us.”

“Let’s not force him guys.” Aaron tried to cover for his best friend, but now Mingi suspected that Aaron must probably know something big too.

Mingi placed his elbow down on the table, angling it at Dongho. “Why don’t you bring him with us to this weekend? We want to meet the guy who stole your heart too.”

Dongho just remembered, the firework show this Friday. His aunt wanted for Minhyun to come with him too. Yet if Minhyun was there with him then he would have no chance with asking out any girls at the place.

“Uhh, I don’t know. I think he is going to be busy.” Dongho tried to lie instead of dodging the subject to throw his friends off a bit, but him opening up about Minhyun even slightly made Mingi grow out his fangs at the chance.

“Just ask him! I am sure he would find some spare time to meet with his own boyfriend.” Mingi teased him, waving his finger at his own cellphone as to show Dongho to call him right now.

The man stayed grumpy, chewing food without speaking for the rest of his meal all while his friends tried to convince him to bring his boyfriend along. It became apparent that Dongho had no choice now.

It wasn’t hard to convince Minhyun to come with him, although the prick sure loved hearing Dongho beg to him over the phone for five minutes for amusement. The Friday came quickly. Now Dongho sat in Minhyuns sleek car while the guy drove him out of town so he could meet up with his friends at the resort place that they were staying at.

Dongho never explained to Minhyun why that silly firework show was a thing he attended annually – while his family got together and went shopping, him Aaron, Mingi and Jonghyun would always get wasted and hook up with people they met there. Minhyun was kind of in the way of that, Dongho didn’t have the heart to openly blame him though.

The car rode was rather silent, until now Minhyun only spoke in smiles, but he broke the silence with a random request. “Hey, take a picture of me driving and upload it.” 

Dongho was weirded out, yet Minhyun kept insisting, “Make sure I look cool in it.”

“Why the hell would I do that?” Dongho snort, earning a rather quick and annoyed reply from Minhyun.

“Your auntie probably checks your social media, so what’s the point of hanging out with me if there’s no proof of it?” He made a fair point.

He sighed and took out his camera to snap the most unflattering photo of Minhyun imaginable, but became annoyed when no matter the angle Minhyun always looked good on camera. The guy uploaded a photo of Minhyuns hand on the wheel instead just to please him. After all the man was being nice to him by continuously going along with these lies. Dongho felt too guilty for making Minhyun to come out here just to pretend to be his boyfriend.

“Do you still like me?” Dongho curiously asked, the only explanation he could see as to why Minhyun was still so kind to him. Maybe the guy was just lonely and liked Donghos company, he also assumed.

“Hmm.” Minhyun nodded to himself, he liked Dongho a little too much these days. Dongho became nervous at the thought of it, “Why don’t you get a real boyfriend?” Dongho felt bad for wasting his time with this.

Minhyun was surprised that Dongho suddenly cared that much about him. He consoled the man, “It’s fine. You aren’t forcing me to do this.”

Dongho turned in his seat, only for the belt to pull him back. With interest he questioned Minhyuns motive, “But, why do you do it?”

Minhyun teased, “Because I get to hang out with someone as adorable as you.” Hearing the joke made Dongho become blank, staring away out the window on his side. 

“Forget about it.” He hissed in defeat feeling his ears filling with heat. “I’m kidding.” The tallest grinned, “I don’t really have a lot of friends these days, so hanging out with you is loads of fun.”

Dongho flicked his eyes to the side to look at Minhyun in secret and think over what he had said, but the other guy caught him glaring. Panicked, he turned the other way again.

“Dongho, could it be that you are blushing again?” Minhyun laughed. “I never blush.” Dongho groaned, asking for him to shut up.

Dongho decided to not stay overnight with his friends as originally intended, knowing that he would then probably be coerced into sharing a room with his prick of a boyfriend. Instead, Minhyun would drive him back home soon after midnight, while the roads were still empty enough for him to arrive home before the next sunrise.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posted on the 21st of july! have a good day everyone!!!!!!!@!

Dongho followed the map on a phone rather than Minhyuns fancy car GPS display. Throughout the ride he had been ignoring the pretty mountainside sights outside the cars windows until Minhyun pointed out that they were coming near the destination. Dongho nod his head up to look.

The mountainside in front of them split into two, the road they drove on followed an edge of a river ravine, which lead to a large vacation establishment tucked away in-between the green hills of trees.

Too preoccupied with staring outside, without noticing, the tired Dongho mistakenly dropped his hand onto the knee of the man sitting beside him. Minhyun peered his curious eyes down at it, and shortly, to win the game of gay chicken, took the hand and slid it further up his own thigh. Dongho lost by realizing what he had been touching this whole time, giving his pretend boyfriend a mean scoff.

Minhyuns ugly, bird like cackling was what was driving Dongho crazy inside of this small car. He wished he could get out of here the sooner the better. The ride continued, Dongho opted to ignore his driver. Not say a damn thing to him no matter how boring the endless drive was. Nothing but green trees flashed by his vision as the car raced down the narrow mountain roads.

Dongho finally cleared his throat and acted like he was only now noticing Minhyun sitting with him in the same car, right after having spent the past five minutes playing with the seat lever. 

He spoke with utmost confidence, “Should I hit on you? Of course, only when were in front of the others, that way we won’t look so divorced.” 

“Give me your best shot then.” Minhyun advised while trying to hold himself from laughing. 

“Gosh.” Dongho hissed trying to come up with something smooth, although it wasn’t really his specialty. He mentally prepared himself for his worst attempt.

“Uhh, Minhyun?” Dongho turned to look at the one he was speaking to, “Your smile is bright as the sun.” The man immediately bit his lip, preparing for the damages.

“You got a big ass.” Minhyun replied. 

Appalled, Dongho let the pressure of his seatbelt pull him away back into his seat. “Alright, I guess that is the end of that plan.” He had given up on his smart idea already.

Minhyun laughed behind the wheel, turning into the drive way of the resort once they had just arrived. Once the engine was out, the shortest hopped out from the car by breaking into a big lion like yawn that was loud enough to echo through the high forest hills surrounding the one lonely spot where they had parked their car.

In the distance of the mountainside stood a dinner and the resort that both Kangs family and friends were staying at. Behind the row of cars far front, Aaron had just parked there as well, who had just so happened to notice Dongho pop his head out and proceed hit it against the low roof of the car his way out, right before that yawn.

The cool sports car must belong to Donghos pretend boyfriend, Aaron noted. He grew nervous to imagine what Minhyun would be like in person, but still he was intrigued to finally meet him.

“Hey, Dongho!” Aaron waved at his best friend who hopped up and down to wave back at him as if he hadn’t seen the guy literally just yesterday.

Then Aaron saw Minhyun, even taller and more slim than shown in his pictures. Aaron was in such awe, he stalled his walk to stare at the guy walking behind Dongho as if he was watching a display.

The cautious Minhyun became hawk eyed at the short guy, he never knew any of Donghos acquaintances nor did he really wish to meet them more than he wanted to hang out with Dongho alone.

“Is this a friend of yours?” Minhyun pointed at the stranger, obviously not knowing if he should act boyfriend in front of this random guy as well. 

“Ah.” Dongho became shifty eyed, he didn’t want to tell Minhyun that Aaron already knew they were fake yet, believing that it would open room for them to get too casual around one another and somehow mess this up.

“Minhyun, this is my best buddy Aaron. I already told him that we are dating. He knows what’s up.” Dongho introduced his friend, giving him a secret wink of the eye.

“Aw, hell yeah dude.” Aaron cheered.

Aaron tried to rise onto his tippy toes to match Minhyuns height and shake the pale hand of the stranger, but the boyfriend had already crossed his arms, his eyes only focused on his own date. Ignored, the shortest stood there as imaginary tumble weeds flew past. Without his handshake, he quietly let his heels drop down and now stood with his knees nervously pressed together instead.

“You shouldn’t tell too many people.” Minhyun worried that publicizing this would eventually hurt Donghos plan, but the guy didn’t care too much, as long as his aunt wasn’t the one to know the real truth.

“Relax, Aaron is a cool guy. He is very open minded.” Dongho tried to vouch for his asshole friend who probably didn’t even deserve it after the guy had been mocking him for this stupid plan in the first place.

The short guy awkwardly chuckled, unable to think of even a sentence before the menacing and scary Minhyun. He cleared his throat and began to speak facing only Dongho. “Should we get food before we unpack?” Aaron suggested, expecting Dongho to unpack to stay overnight. 

“Uh, sure! I won’t be unpacking though, I’ll dip shortly after midnight.” The other replied.

The two men continued to speak and their voices soon became like static to Minhyuns ears. He threw a jealous glance at Donghos best guy friend and then it immediately returned to staring down low at his own crossed arms. Dongho was simply being mean by making him third wheel in a group of friends that he was not a part of.

After a short exchange Aaron went ahead without Minhyun and Dongho, or more or less ran from them. Meanwhile the two were still in the process of locking their car and finding their wallets inside. While the two of them had their heads popped inside of the front seats of the car from either side, Minhyun decided to ask him a quick question first.

“Does Aaron really not know – that this is a fake relationship?” He worried there was something strange about that guy, the way he glared at Dongho wasn’t ordinary, but he couldn’t tell what it was exactly.

Dongho shook his head, lying to his Minhyun this time. He just didn’t want to worry him like that yet. Aaron would keep his mouth shut about their secret anyways, so who cares.

“He doesn’t seem like the type of the guy I imagined you hanging out with.” Minhyun made an odd comment, further trying to find ridiculous ways in order to make that one guy appear more untrustworthy to himself. 

Minhyun even teased Dongho, “He looks nerdy.” For some reason that triggered Donghos most offended response. 

“No way! Aaron is my main bro. Literally the manliest guy I know. He has thought me everything I know about picking up dates.” Dongho bragged while trying to both gesture an elbow nudging and a wink directed at Minhyun, implying things that the guy did not wish to imagine. 

Minhyun didn’t say anything, but Donghos friends made him doubtful him. They could potentially cause a mess.

The two headed inside to look for anyone else that Dongho knew. So far the place was packed with other visitors, the large dining hall was too full for them to eat for at least the next hour. The two men stood around in a less populated spot waiting for Aaron to return. That guy was a runaway. 

Minhyun did what they had discussed doing in the car, and began to lazily hit on Dongho despite the fact that there was nobody around to catch them doing it. Obviously, he was doing it on purpose, trying to rile Dongho on like a bull teased with a red flag. Telling Minhyun to shut his mouth was useless when his first response to that exact request always implied something lewd between the two.

Dongho stood with his arms crossed to copy his rival. Instead of speaking he was again flashing his eyes of despise at Minhyun, who in return only gave him loving and affectionate smiles.

Suddenly Donghos eyes shifted away from the other man when detecting cute girls in the same vicinity. Two college girls were coming to approach Dongho, so he instantly straightened his bent back and unhooked his arms.

“Hey there.” One of the women introduced. They looked a bit younger than him, both dressed sporty suit for the heated weather out on the hillside. 

“Hey?” Dongho nod.

Dongho proceeded to small talk the two women, causing them to laugh and break into smiles, while forgetting about his friend on the side. Minhyun looked over the scene carefully, recognizing Donghos sad attempts to flirt. The poor guy was completely in his own world, not realizing that these girls had been throwing glances at Minhyun instead of him the whole time.

Eventually, the two women found the right moment up to segue into talking about Donghos tall, handsome friend instead. The short guy obviously wasn’t prepared for it.

“So um, who is your cute sidekick?” The women completely ignored Dongho, staring up at the tall model like Minhyun with hearts dripping from their eyes.

By then Dongho had finally realized – they weren’t interested in him even remotely, but this stupid schmuck instead. Dongho became hurt when realizing that they had only used him to get to Minhyun. It offended his pride.

“He is my boyfriend.” Dongho barked at them, grabbing Minhyun by his fingers to storm off along with him. Minhyuns eyes popped in surprise as he willingly followed Dongho with the biggest shitty grin on his face.

Dongho dragged Minhyun far enough for them to reach the room suites. They stopped in middle of a long hall with a lot less people around to become witness to him fuming. For some reason he had never let go of Minhyuns hand even after he had stopped fleeing.

“Sorry for that.” Dongho apologized, he knew he had acted childish by becoming upset.

Minhyun was already laughing at him for it, of course the jerk couldn’t wait to mock his him at every chance he got. Yet honestly Minhyun was more impressed by him just now, he could have never guessed that the guy had a feisty possessive side to him too.

“Dongho, you were so freaking cool!” He cheered, mimicking and reciting the same words that Dongho had said to those girls back there. The short guy became absolutely miserable being forced to hear Minhyun flatter him this way.

“Piss off.” Dongho grunt under his nose, wanting to disappear. But he couldn’t – he was forced to spend the whole day with this guy anyway.

Suddenly the door of one of the suites right in front of them blew open like it had been kicked. The boys twitched in horror thinking some stranger had overheard them speak. However it was instead much – much more worse than that.

“Well, well, well.” A voice familiar to Dongho mocked them. Choi Mingi, the devil himself, had emerged directly from hell to taunt them.

Mingi came to interrupt them after recognizing Donghos whiny voice outside of his room, there was no other one like it. His mouth was practically drooling at the sight of Dongho holding a hand of his supposed boyfriend.

“Oh, hey Mingi!” Dongho removed his hand quick as lightning. Minhyun also positioned himself protectively standing behind Donghos broad shoulders, forgetting that he was too tall to even hide behind such a tiny cover.

“Uh. Minhyun, this is my friend Choi Mingi. We attend the same university together.” Dongho introduced first. Minhyun made a tiny bow.

“Woah, you really are dating this guy then?” Mingi couldn’t believe his eyes that his friend stood in cahoots with another man. Yet all of this was still too obviously fishy, and he definitely wasn’t falling for it.

The way Dongho acted around the guy made it too obvious that they weren’t dating, plus that guy didn’t even look like someone Dongho could even be friends with, let alone be his partner. Yet the question still remained – what were they trying to do by faking this, Mingis smirk grew wider to find out.

“Mingi also knows that we are dating, I never meant to tell him.” Dongho spoke with a shy and little voice, trying to sound apologetic, “Sorry.”

“You guys surely look like a match made in haven.” Mingi mocked the unlikely pair, making it very clear to both of them that the guy was seeing right through their bullshit. However, Dongho told himself to just stay cool and act convincing.

Moments later the trio was approached by Aaron and Jonghyun as well, and they appeared to be just as judging. Dongho was forced to introduce Minhyun all over again, it couldn’t get even more awkward than this.

Jonghyun, the third and last guy who was aware of their blooming young relationship, didn’t mean to stare at Donghos boyfriend so much, but that guy was seriously good looking, as if he was straight out of a modelling magazine. Jonghyun had checked out his car outside too, so he supposed that the guy was certainly loaded too. 

Kang was one lucky bastard, because the penniless Dongho and his boyfriend were the two polar opposites, this lead Jonghyun to question what type of relationship did these two even have for them to go out. It was not hard to imagine that perhaps Minhyun had some bizarre fetish that only Kang could satisfy, but Jonghyun quickly shook those scary thoughts from his untained mind.

“Should we leave the lovebirds alone?” Mingi elbowed to Jonghyun standing to his side.

By now Dongho was starting to get upset at Mingi, he rarely could get upset with him ever, but today was one of those rare days where he just wanted to put him in a headlock.

Minhyun surprised everyone with his voice, deep and swoony. “No, it’s fine.”

“You guys should take Dongho from here.” His suggestion surprised the rest, “I’ll probably be at the diner.” Minhyun got ready to turn his heels and ditch the group just so Kang could spend time with the people he actually cared about.

Dongho instantly realized what Minhyun was up to, the guy just wanted to give him his own space. However, Dongho felt bad for him being alone without anyone to hang out with. He hated to imagine Minhyun being lonely because of him after he had begged Hwang to help him.

“Stay here with me.” Dongho reacted as Minhyun was already turning away to leave before the guy could say something to stop him. Minhyun was pleasantly surprised that Kang had actually done just that. 

“Let’s just go somewhere together.” Dongho did not only stop Minhyun from motion, but everyone else as well as they awkwardly stood watching the two men interracting.

“Well,” Mingi eyed everyone to see if they would be on the same page. “Then we should all go check out the forest trail together!” 

Right as he had said it, a ghostly whine passed from someone’s mouth, but whoever had done it had made it discreet. Mingi was speaking about the numerous hiking trails leading up into forest hills, up there at it’s peak were park benches facing the distant cities over the mountains.

Aaron instantly objected, “Hell nah, man! There are probably cougars and all sorts of shit up there. I ain’t going that way!”

Jonghyun had to close his eyes to process the stupidity that this boy was spewing, “A what? Aaron, things like that don’t live here.”

“Oh, come on guys! We do this every time!” Mingi angrily stomped his feet, grabbing on Donghos sleeve to try to convince and drag him off.

Dongho knew he had no choice, if he wanted to prove that him and Minhyun were a thing, then they had to go up that stupid trail together with his best friends and do all of that couple bullshit together.

While the rest had slipped into a heated argument, Minhyun looked at his nice shoes and then around at everyone else who had worn sneakers, feeling unprepared and out of place to go into a forest. Besides, he had never even gone on a trail before.

As expected Minhyun wasn’t used to steep, rocky, up hill walking through the bushes and thorns. His nose was itching to sneeze from all the pollen floating in the air.

“Hey,” Jonghyun managed to sneak up to Minhyun who was slower at walking than the rest. The tallest gave the man a nod, looking him up and down, “Jonghyun, right?”

The other man smiled shyly, “That’s right.”

Dongho noticed the two guys walking slower right behind them, giggling and whispering to one another, and just assumed that they were talking about him. He raised a suspicious eyebrow when looking back. Minhyun ignored him on purpose.

“So how did you and – uhh, Dongho – become a thing?” Jonghyun wondered out loud. 

Perhaps this wasn’t the best time to ask for this, yet Jonghyun was interested to know a bit about him, and plus didn’t know when Dongho would ever show up with the guy again, since he never bought him up in conversation either.

“Did he not tell you already by now?” Minhyun purposely continued to show a smile to spite Dongho glaring back at him, full of jealousy for Hwang trying to steal his friends.

“No, Dongho is very secretive about you actually.” Jonghyun complained. “He is just protective of me. Very-very protective.” Minhyun mocked Dongho just loud enough for him to hear it.

He had definitely heard it, Minhyun confirmed it by seeing Donghos shoulder blades twitch up from under his shirt, as if the insults targeted at him were flying directly into his back.

“And how did you get involved with Kang?” Minhyun made it sound like Dongho was some kind of a criminal personality, causing Jonghyun to laugh. Now Minhyun was slowing down to walk closer next to him.

“We started talking after we got paired for a group project in class.” He explained to the smiley man. By now Minhyun absolutely ignored what he was saying, fixing his glance on Jonghyuns nervous and shy face instead.

The two wanted to chat some more, but shortly after Jonghyun had to follow his call of duty that came in the form of Mingi and Aaron yelling from all the way up the trail telling him to hurry up because they all desperately needed to find a place to piss, acting like they themselves needed someone to hold up their non existent skirt for them.

After Jonghyun had dashed up and past him, Dongho stopped to look back at Minhyun bending his long robotic limbs up the hill with the eyes of petty. Everyone else had already walked far up ahead, but he had to stall and wait for the slow Minhyun because after all he was the one apparently dating this idiot.

Dongho spoke to Minhyun just as the guy was about to catch up the hill, “Were you flirting with that guy?” He spoke with a scolding frown.

“I was bored.” Minhyun was being honest, but that bluntness made Dongho upset. “Seriously? You are supposed to play your part, not play around, you moron.” He reminded.

“Come on, he didn’t even notice.” Minhyun complained, “And even if he did, I’d just tell him that our relationship is open like that.”

“Don’t you dare.” Dongho warned him, “You’re gonna make me sound like some perv like you.” Minhyun couldn’t disagree.

“Don’t worry, if we were dating for real, I’d only look at you.” The tall bastard still made his jokes, Dongho wasn’t particularly impressed. He shrug.

“Isn’t that kinda what you do with your girlfriends, since you have a lot of them?” Minhyun teased Dongho again. 

“No way, I don’t date. If they are looking for a relationship, then I just tell them that I am not their guy right away and not waste their time.” He told.

Minhyun again started walking slow when beside Dongho, another intrusive question passed the gate of his lips. “But what if they just cling onto you the next morning after one night and refuse to let go?”

Dongho snort, while simultaneously inching a spot behind his own ear, “Nah. I usually end up waking up with an empty bedside and a motel bill signed under my name.”

Dongho shot his face at him realizing something, “What are you hinting at? Are you like that?” Minhyuns laugh quickly went from normal to nervous.

While distracted with talking, Minhyun suddenly tripped over a tree root sticking out of the ground and in the process of falling almost broke his neck. He jumped to hold onto Dongho as if he were a pole. Panicked Dongho put his arms around Minhyuns back the same way, hugging him into balance.

He stood close to Minhyuns face, close enough to see in his eyes to realize that him tripping had been an act just to get him into this position. Minhyun had done so knowing that the friends of his boyfriend were probably spying them from the bushes.

Donghos face was blown up with red, but he didn’t break the contact nevertheless, going with the same plan. Although, both of them were unsure how long they should be standing like this.

“Should we kiss right here too?” The bastard laughed. “Try something, see what happens.” Dongho made a threat and immediately let go, while the other let out a loud laugh down the hill.

The two instantly became nervous and sweaty after parting, both clearing their throats and eyeing at the ground instead of each other. They both turned to look away down the path the had come, there was a great view in the distance of the resort that looked small tucked in-between the high looming mountains.

Both of them were taken out of his thoughtful moment by a very audible crunch coming from behind the shrouded trees. Judging by how loud it had been it was either an animal trying to eat them, or the three known idiots trying to stay incognito to watch the two lovers embrace. Donghos friends were certainly smarter than they looked.

Dongho was just about to turn back and keep going uphill, when he was suddenly surprised with a back hug by the taller male. It soon clicked for him that this was still part of the act. Yet Minhyun always acted so convincing about it, it was like he was doing it as a genuine thing.

Minhyun had placed his chin down and hung over Donghos shoulder, his arms locked around his boyfriends stomach. He was so close he inhaled Donghos breaths. The man smelled of something sweet and sour, a little like a stale fruit.

The affectionate pose was upsetting Dongho, but not because he had a problem with hugging, it was the fact that he was the one being hugged right now and not the other way around. Dongho was convinced that he had to alpha-up and be the one to hug the other man from the back instead. 

He broke from Minhyuns clutches and forcefully turned him around, “Let me show you how it is done.” 

It didn’t work as he had imagined it, Minhyun was too fucking tall and Dongho ended up only being able to hug him from behind by pressing his cheek into Minhyuns back, even if he did stand on his toes.

The two never found a proper hugging position where they were both ever comfortable, they could just sit here all day and argue. Until they were startled by that sound coming from the bushes again. It was louder this time, rustling almost like whatever was in it was trying to uproot the ground around it. It didn’t sound like just a group of friends in hiding anymore.

Dongho briefly remembered what the American had said about cougars and now he his eyes were shaped like two moons, staring into the moving leaves and grass until a creature walking on four legs had emerged.

“It’s a—a wild dog.” Dongho saw the beast near him with a slow strut.

“H-hide behind me!” Dongho ordered the tall man to use him like a shield. Now Dongho stood in front of the other spread out like a wall, even though he was the one slightly more terrified than the other.

“What do we do?” Minhyun worried about the creature being so dangerously close. At this point Dongho had shut his eyes and turned his cheek refusing to recognize the animal.

“Fuck, I don’t know! Stay cool!” Dongho trembled, trying to mimic a statue in hopes that the animal would lose interest and just simply pass by. They weren’t in luck, the man eating creature was only coming closer faster.

Right then, Dongho whimpered feeling something poke his knee. He had prepared to die right then, but then he opened his eyes to a dog licking his leg. Minhyun realized that the threat was a playful dog on a walk and began to quietly laugh over Donghos shoulder.

The same dog then ran off, distracted by the whistling of its owner further off the hiking path. Dongho had lost all of his pride in an instant.

“I am going back.” Dongho started to walk down with the widest steps. Minhyun wanted him to wait up, concerned about his friends probably waiting at the top.


	6. Chapter 6

The nightfall came soon enough, and people began to gather around for the main event. It involved families, young couples, drinking, loud music and of course all the annoying dancing. The hotel had a large patio in the back, surrounded by stories of horseshoe shaped balconies behind, and a view of the place for fireworks in front.

Dongho wished he could have just a sip of alcohol tonight or sneak off with one of the pretty girls around that kept eyeing him. Instead, he had to pretend to be a toy of that jerk Hwang for the night. At least on the bright side, Minhyun was doing all the talking as well as all of the acting for him.

Although at some point they did have to show a little bit more affection than just smiling pretty at everyone who asked if they were really dating. Not wanting to suck on each others faces for real, the two resort to just giving one another small childlike kisses on the cheek, of course given that Dongho would have to try his best to pretend he didn’t want to rip the guys head off.

Eventually though, Dongho had enough and he pulled Minhyun away from everyone with him, allowing himself to grab a drink as a reward for having to deal with his aunt and all of her friends pulling on Donghos and Minhyuns fluffy cheeks. The poor guy cringed at the thought of having to go through that for the whole night, but he had promised that at least after today he at least would finally be free from Minhyun for a long while.

“Might wanna drink too.” Dongho recovered after downing a shot glass in one go, offering one to his partner in crime. “It’s fine. I have to drive you home later anyways.” Minhyun advocated.

“Oh, shit. I forgot.” Dongho murmured. He even wobbled a bit, as the drink had gone straight to his head, but then seconds later he was fine. 

Minhyun saw the guy almost trip and instantly worried, “Are you sure you don’t want to stay overnight?”

The guy didn’t want to imagine it, it would mean that he would be forced by his aunt to sleep in the same bedroom alone with Minhyun, for reasons he was afraid to imagine. He answered to Minhyun by shaking his head.

“Hey, are they still looking at us?” Dongho asked Minhyun, unwilling to look back at his family himself. “Kang, all of them have been staring at us for the whole time.” Minhyun still sounded concerned about the other man.

The young couple was probably the highlight of the event for many. People actually waited for them to act boyfriend, and when they did so out of peer pressure, people then hid their giggles and whispers behind the sleeves of their hands. They couldn’t back down, they had to please the crowd.

The first rocket shot into the night sky, everyone turned their heads back to stare in awe as the ball of light bloomed into a flower of fire, which looked like it had sprout from the steep hills.

Fearing that it was about to start, Dongho dragged Minhyun back to the very front at the guardrail at the far end of the patio where they stood together and watched more of the early fireworks go off before the main show was about to start soon enough. Even these small fireworks were blindingly bright in the dark. 

People stood right behind them, so instead of watching the sparks in the sky, Dongho felt pressured to do something with Minhyun in front of everyone, to at last prove his relationship for all.

Minhyuns eyes were distracted and wide at the patterns forming in the night sky, exploding into million colours that would sprinkle down from the sky before a new rocket sparked the sky with more explosions. He was so obsessed with for the first time being able to see live fireworks, that he didn’t notice his own head being turned to the side by someone. 

By holding Minhyun by the back of his neck, Dongho leaned in for a kiss across the lips. In that very moment a bright flash of white lit up the whole sky. The cheers welcoming the start of the firework show became so loud that they had muted any words Minhyun could say to prevent Dongho from kissing him, not that he really wanted for him to stop it.

Dongho lips were slow and careful, they barely parted brushing soft over Minhyuns. The short male pulled away only after three seconds, but even in that short time, Minhyun felt like he had shot up into a cloud of bliss and after it had ended it was so hard to land back down on his feet.

“Sorry.” Dongho retreated only with the taste of regret on his lips. Minhyun couldn’t hear his apology in the background of the blasting sky, but he forgave him anyway.

The tall guy turned away, he put his elbows down on top of the guardrail, hanging his arms over the other side and continued to watch the fireworks like nothing had happened. Although, he did chuckle at himself and how much everything had escalated to this point.

Dongho suddenly spoke out of spite, he sounded troubled, “This is why I don’t want to date anyone for real.” He spoke referring to his family who only wanted to marry him off.

“I just want to run away right now.” Dongho was admitting his fear of showing affection.

Minhyun had become anxious of the surrounding stares too, but for him it mattered more how those stares affected Dongho and not himself. 

“Should we run away then? Hop into the car and just leave?” Minhyun suggested, but Dongho turned him down.

“I want to see the fireworks. They are so pretty.” Dongho looked ahead only at Minhyun, making the guy feel like he was describing the man before him instead.

The two men turned away from one another again and only looked at the flashing sky that bled with colours. It all seemed only an arms reach away when it was actually happening far above them. The low mountainsides had filled with smoke caused by the vicious, continuous detonations breaking the same sky into two.

It wasn’t long before Dongho tried to move himself to kiss Minhyun again, but this time he couldn’t force himself to. Dongho honestly didn’t know how. He had never kissed a guy before, at first he thought it would be no different, yet now not even a muscle in his body would pull.

“Why can’t I just do it? What’s wrong with me?” Dongho had asked himself out loud. Minhyun stayed silent on the matter.

Before the sky fully faded to black, Dongho gave up on watching the fireworks and took Minhyuns hand to sneak off from the crowd, pulling him around a lonely corner of the resort facing away from the loud skies.

Minhyuns footsteps were spaced far apart trying not to trip while being dragged off by Dongho to a secluded dark place. “What is this all about?” He noticed Donghos obvious pouty frown.

“I really can’t do it with you out there, I am trying, but—” Dongho complained, lining his back up against a wall to rest from the jog. “Sorry.” He felt as if he had failed.

“Hey, you don’t have to force yourself.” Minhyun told him, but the guy was always stubborn. “No. I know I can do it. I just need to get used to it first.” 

Dongho had angrily insisted - he wanted to man up as this should be easy. “Used to—it?” Minhyun was surprised with that type of bluntness.

“If I keep being awkward and clumsy around you like this, no one is going to ever believe us.” He argued against Minhyun.

Dongho feared that if his boyfriend were to unexpectedly embrace him, as the first involuntary reaction he would freak out or make a sound or a cuss, and everyone would see it and their lies would fall through.

“It should be a thing I can pull off without hesitating, just like you can do it easily.” He explained.

“I am different than you.” Minhyun wore the saddest face. It was only easy for him only because he liked Dongho. The short man realized it again, he swallowed the guilt of that, and decided to proceed with his plan anyways.

Minhyun sighed in defeat, “What do you want me to do then?” Dongho didn’t know either, “Just go bonkers, I guess. I’ll try to follow your lead.”

Minhyun made a small laugh before positioning his hands on Donghos shoulders and parting his lips against the shortest. The two shut their eyes, pressing further up against that wall behind Dongho. Distant flashes of light echoed from around the corner, illuminating their long necks reaching to connect their lips.

Upon the first impact, Donghos short fingers curled and hooked inside the folds of Minhyuns clothing, arms pulling the other closer. The tall male understood the nod as an implication to press on, angling his head to properly slick his tongue into the mouth of the other.

Dongho let out a small sigh and parted his droopy eyes for just a second and then allowed Minhyun for a deep, warm kiss. Overtime, as their kisses had stretched longer and longer, Minhyun made intervals to pull away and let Dongho pant wild breaths onto his reddened lips.

“Do you want me to stop yet?” Minhyun asked for confirmation, before letting Dongho pull him back.

“Its fine, keep going.” Dongho spoke in a slightly annoyed, grumpy voice, rolling his eyes to the side.

“Sure then.” Minhyun pushed himself back into the trap of Donghos hot, wet kisses. Althought this was becoming more heated already, they were still carefully guiding one another, experimenting with seeing how far Dongho could go with this.

While Dongho was starting to gradually become less tense about this, Minhyun had already lost his cool. His tongue slid past Donghos, the other man retaliated by sucking a rough kiss back on him to see who could possibly go harder.

Fuelled by fireworks of his own exploding inside of him, Minhyun took Donghos cheeks in his hands, acting like for even a moment, this man was all his. 

Dongho let out a sigh, a pleasant one. He forever shut his eyes feeling Minhyuns rough tongue ride over his sensitive bottom lip, the sharp teeth ghosting over the licked wet spots tickled the very ends of his nerves.

The loud rockets made the absence of the couple invisible to their friends and auntie. The only person who even thought to poke his head up above the crowd to look for Dongho was his best friend Aaron. Dongho was missing.

He had seen the guy drinking earlier and felt bad for him. Aaron was the only one who knew the truth about the lie, so he knew that this whole ordeal must’ve be rough on Dongho, as he was forced to hold hands and kiss a guy he didn’t even like for the joy of his family. It wouldn’t surprise Aaron if his friend had run off to hide somewhere.

Before the show had fully ceased, Aaron went out to look for him hoping not to catch the poor boy puking somewhere after the drinks he had forced down. Minhyun was missing too, so he supposed that they could only be hiding together.

Aaron circled the whole building clockwise, still unable to find them until he came to spot two figures pressed up against the buildings wall. Aarons eyes popped wide enough to launch out of his skull when recognizing the couple making out as Minhyun and Dongho.

His first thought was to assume that Minhyun had tricked Dongho into doing that, but his legs aimed at running suddenly stopped themselves like they were being held down by blocks of cinder. Aaron realized that the shortest man wasn’t pushing him away.

Dongho only got out of the kiss to argue with Minhyun about something from afar, not minding that man was holding his face, his earlobes flashing red in-between Minhyuns spread fingertips. Seconds later they returned to what they had been doing as Aaron still watched.

Minhyun lowered his kisses, and then went to sucked his teeth into Donghos long neck. Aaron couldn’t see Minhyun too well, but Donghos face was clearly visible illuminated by the bright flashes of colourful lights still going off in the background. Aaron caught a glimpse of Donghos strange expression and ended up staring at his friend make faces that he had never seen.

Aaron realized how weird this was now, and how weird he himself felt. The intruder bit his lip and began to walk backwards, following his own shoeprints to return the way he had came as if it could undo him ever witnessing what he was not supposed to see.

Meanwhile neither of the two men had a clue they were being watched. Minhyun finally pulled away, running a thumb across his own lips to wipe the droll they had swapped.

“You alright?” Minhyun asked, his face growing into a smirk. Dongho made stressed nods. 

His lips were sore with redness and neck wore Minhyuns signature. It made Minhyun think that if he glanced at Dongho for any longer, he would lose his mind.

“I think I got the hang of it for now.” Dongho exhaled, slowly coming down from his adrenaline high. 

“We should go back now.” Despite it being over, the shortest still pant like he had just ran out of a marathon. 

The two men could already hear the firework sounds fade into an empty sky, and came back right after the show was fully over. They were never noticed as gone and managed to sneak back in and mingle with the same crowd as if they had never left. 

But Dongho found it hard to interact with anyone when his heart was still in middle of racing for some reason. His breaths were still long and a feeling in his chest grew so heavy he felt like dying, the only way he knew how to fix it and free his mind from second thoughts was to drink up.

He stared at a can of beer someone had offered to share, to him it looked like the tastiest thing in the world he should have right now. Dongho downed it in one go as an effort to wash down the aftertaste of him kissing Minhyun. 

The pang and throb in in his head right afterwards was almost instant, he became woozy and felt his knees lose their strength. But the tall body of Minhyun stood right behind him to block him slipping down to the floor when there was nothing else to hold on to.

He looked at Minhyun, disorientated and lost. “Don’t stop holding my hand.” The man asked and Minhyun instantly clamped around the guys fingers to fulfil the promise.

After Dongho had learned how to stand again, he was noticeably acting a little jittery. While he kept smiling and laughing with the other visitors, his nervous eyes always kept shooting back up to Minhyun. Dongho was sweating directly into the mans palm.

Later Jonghyun and Mingi caught Dongho at the food stand, desperately looking for any alcoholic beverage left that he could swallow, as if he had gone feral. Minhyun stood there as well and just watched him doing it without stopping him. Mingi narrowed his eyes in suspicion, quickly pointing what he had seen to Jonghyun as well.

He told that If Minhyun actually knew Dongho for any short period of time, then he would already know by now that Kangs alcohol tolerance was low, even if he claimed the opposite.

For the rest of the night afterwards Dongho was confident to hold Minhyuns hand, as well as was heavily intoxicated to the point where it was Minhyun the one holding him. Dongho clung to his boyfriends sleeve like he was desperate for every second of the guys attention. And every woman he had hoped to hook up with at the event now feared to come near him in this state.

Not being able to tell faces apart too well anymore, Dongho even began clumsily hitting on Minhyun, alas with jokes so old fashioned, that only Aaron would laugh at them. Judging by his slurred speech and him spewing out swearwords all mentioning of Choi Mingi in one way or another, it became evident that Dongho should just lay down for the night. Minhyun worried.

Minhyun pulled Dongho by his sleeve, the guy walked backwards with his eyes wide open, unable to process what was happening. Then he recognized Minhyuns voice speaking behind him and he barely could even turn around to face him. 

“You are too intoxicated to even be here Dongho. Should I take you to the guest rooms and leave you there with your friends?” Minhyun worried whenever Dongho tilt his head down, because it looked like he was about to puke on him.

Dongho shook his head in a distressed way, “No. You did this to me, take the responsibility.” He refused to the idea of Hwang ditching him at the end of the night, his hand found Minhyuns hand again and squeezed even tighter around it to keep Minhyun from leaving him.

Minhyun stood there for a second absolutely dumbfounded, but the next second Dongho had already leaned forwards to sleep on his flat shoulders. The tall man had no clue what to do with him here. He ended up just carrying him outside to the parking lot away from the eyes of people who could name Dongho, and before they could realize how shitfaced drunk he had become in matter of less than an hour.

Donghos words were rendered into babbling of a toddler when he tried to argue against Minhyun stuffing him back into the car. Yet shorty before the tallest could manage to open the front door and safely slide him in, an unexpected person had come looking for the guy.

Aaron ran up to the car and put his hand on top the frame of the door to prevent it from opening any further so Minhyun couldn’t place Dongho inside, “Where are you taking him?” He demanded.

“He is drunk. I am taking him home so he doesn’t get his ass beat if his aunt sees him like this.” Minhyun complained, trying to push the door wide and causing Aaron to block it with his body instead.

“Then I should be taking him home.” He insisted, but Minhyun didn’t want none of it. “What difference does it make? His stuff is already in my car, it’ll be quicker this way.” He rant.

“He is – my friend.” Aaron emphasized. 

“And he is my boyfriend.” Minhyun growled right back, upset that this guy was stealing time while Dongho was feeling unwell, about to vomit any second if he didn’t get to lay down.

Angered by Hwang, Aaron turned to speak in a sinister voice, one not even Dongho had heard him use before, “Drop the act, I already know the two of you are faking it.”

Minhyun didn’t react, only his eyelid had twitched. Aaron was trying to scare him, but he wasn’t so afraid of him. He stood tall above him, menacingly looking down on the man.

Aaron didn’t care about his tactic either, he then enforced, “I am not going to let my friend get in the car with an absolute stranger.” 

Minhyun wanted to snap at the guy for holding him a suspect, but he stayed composed. Yet the way Aaron tried to insult him by telling him that Dongho didn’t even see Minhyun as a simple friend had angered the tall male. This had become some kind of a turf war over Kang.

While the two exchanged dangerous glares, Dongho suddenly moved off from Minhyun shoulder and like a body reanimated after death began to casually walk around the car to then crawl into the passengers seat through the door of driver seat side.

Aaron bent down to look inside of the low sports car mostly surprised, “Dongho?” The guy had already settled in his seat and even strapped his own belt in without a disturbance before responding to his friends call.

“What is it you prick? What are you so loud for?” He went with a grunt pushed straight out of his lungs just to yell at Aaron for supposedly waking him up from his drooling nap.

“I was trying to take you home with me.” Aaron tried to calmly explain, but was met with an aggressive, hurtful reply – “No you ain’t. Quit following me around.”

“Huh?” Aaron acted lost, yet his forehead was wet from guilt. 

“You been doing this creep shit all night and I’m tired.” Dongho yawned, calling his own friend out for spying on the two men later after the fireworks had gone quiet. Although, Dongho still had no idea that his friend had also seen them prior when that kiss happened.

Aaron was more shocked than ashamed for being found out, as he didn’t realize what he was doing was weird. From his perspective, he was only looking out for Dongho, especially after seeing the two together earlier.

“But—” Aaron worried. “Leave me alone already, seriously.” Dongho shouted back before slamming the same door shut. 

The tallest stood in the middle of the two friends, unsure why they were even fighting, or why Dongho was taking his side instead of his best friend. Minhyun was woken from his cloud of thoughts once the man inside the car had knocked on the window, ordering him to drive off.

Minhyun quickly sat into the car to speed off into the direction of the highway bending around the hills. The backlights of the car left a ghostly trail of light behind on the paved road before the car became entirely swallowed by the pitch black from Aaron vision. 

The short man was left standing in the drive way of the parking lot, his feet split the white light shining from far behind of him. He anxiously scared into the dark direction of the exit road with his heart racing faster than ever.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not safey for workey btw

The highway lights bounced over the roof of the speeding car, endlessly one after another shining into Donghos eyes. He found himself awake squinting his eyes away from the flashes.

It was still dark outside and the car had not yet reached the part of the city where Dongho lived. He felt dizzy, sleepy and as if he had to puke. The last thing is what really made the guy jolt to being fully awake, he began to whine at the driver from the back to go faster.

“You alright back there?” Minhyun couldn’t look back to see for himself without reaching an intersection first.

Dongho lazily waved his weak wrist up from behind, “Hey, you gotta paper bag in the back or something?” He laughed.

Minhyun stressed his eyes on the road, trying to think of ways to avoid the worst distressing outcome. “Uhh, no sorry.”

“How close are we already?” Dongho rolled onto his stomach, bobbing his chin up to see out of the window for buildings or streets he could recognize. He burped, frightening Minhyun.

“Not quite, there are more traffic stops inside of the city that will keep us on the road for a while.” Minhyun worried that they really might not make it before Dongho goes ahead puking all over his beautiful leather seats.

Donghos soft sleepy voice and what it had to say surprised him when he registered it right behind his own ear. “Where is your house?” Dongho had sat, holding onto the back of Minhyuns drivers seat while his fingers still shook and trembled caused by motion sickness.

“That would be closer from here, but I really should bring you to your own home instead.” Minhyun told Dongho, who whined until he had to hiccup, they made the tallest jump every time.

“Ah please, just let me crash for the night there.” Dongho groaned, letting go to hold onto his throbbing head that was screaming at him to go to sleep, but he couldn’t in this car when it made him sick.

It was difficult to convince Hwang, the jerk was actually quite stubborn. “ Come on dude. There is nobody at my home to even take care of the ill me.”

Minhyun flashed a smirk, visible to Dongho only by looking into the rear view mirror. “Do you want me to take care of you that badly?” He mocked the other.

Dongho was immune to Minhyuns attempts to intimidate him. “Yeah, you are my servant now.” He laughed back.

Minhyun sighed and gave in. The car suddenly swerved out of the lane and signalled for a turn into one of the side streets. The scenery of the local grocery stores and small restaurant places was soon replaced by window stores of high luxury clothing and jewellery stores, the amount of high rise buildings doubled when entering the richer district where all high apartment complexes looked like penthouses.

Minhyun described to Kang that lived in a single bedroom apartment, because he didn’t need a lot for one person, but the price and location still made Dongho fuming with jealousy.

Although, the guy soon didn’t care anymore once he was finally out of the shaky loud sport car. Out of joy, he went to sleep right on Minhyuns shoulder that was carrying him. After a short, slow walk from the underground parking area to the elevator, and then to the door of the apartment – they were happily at home.

First thing, Minhyun somehow managed to tear Donghos sneakers off his feet before entering further into the apartment, it was impressively difficult. To help himself he felt the wall in the dark trying to find the next light switch, but Dongho woke up just to complain. 

“Don’t turn the light on, just take me to the couch.” He moaned in his sleep.

Minhyun left it at that and carried the sleepy male towards his bedroom instead, deciding that a couch wouldn’t comfortably fit the man of the large build, so he should sleep there himself.

Just as Minhyun had bought Dongho to the edge of the bed, his foot got stuck on something in the dark and then there was a thud below their own feet. Dongho had stubbed his toe on the way down. Minhyun couldn’t believe his ears that a man could ever scream so high – Dongho sounded like a bird with a broken wing.

The guy dropped in bed wincing and squirming in pain, Minhyun rushed to pull his phone from his pocket to use the nightlight and look at the damages. He shined the light directly at the mans foot and didn’t see anything, but a healthy, alas a bit pinkish big toe with no signs of it being broken or even having its nail split.

“Your pain tolerance is really low, don’t you train in martial arts?” Minhyun wondered, poking the pink, squishy toe with his finger.

Dongho whimpered like a patient before an amputation while Minhyun looked after his grave appendage. The tall guy wasn’t impressed, so when he had flashed the flashlight directly into Donghos eyes next, maybe it was done on purpose. Kang hissed like a cat, hiding his face behind his folded elbows.

Minhyun crawled up to Donghos top half, helping him sleep sitting in the bed, back pressed up against the headrest as opposed to him laying down. For a person who has had drinks, it would help him breathe better and if he was about to puke in his sleep, then this way he wouldn’t choke and suffocate.

Dongho realized Minhyuns idea and complained at him, “I am not nauseous or drunk anymore. I am just tired, that’s it.” He explained how he wished to sleep normally by laying down.

“Are you sure?” Minhyun watched Dongho barely even lift his cheek to nod, but he didn’t wish to argue with him.

After his job was done here, Minhyun began to walk his knees backwards to the edge of the bed to quickly leave. He saw it as unlikely thing that Dongho would ask him to stay, however that guy never ceased to baffle him. 

The next second, Minhyun found himself suffocating inside of the tired mans cuddles, suddenly being hugged by him like a toy. After a while of suffering, he grew to like it. No one had cuddled him this way since he was a kid, given him a genuine friendly hug.

“Thank you Minhyun, you are the fucking best.” Dongho wanted to express it before Minhyun had the chance to forget about his good deeds of helping him.

“I know.” Minhyun tried to force a grin inside of Donghos grip of death. Dongho had never let go of hugging the other male, and while he did so he had decided to talk more, the things he said came from a very tired part of his brain. 

“I wish you were a girl, Minhyun.” He murmured. Minhyun stopped his silly grin to push out of the hug and frown, “What is that supposed to mean?”

The sleepy man was acting smiley and innocent, “Then I could date you for real.” He made his answer sound more or less just a silly jest.

Minhyun pretended to be offended, even though he found Donghos random mumble of words enticing. “I thought you said that you don’t want to stay committed to anyone?” Minhyun pointed out.

Dongho nodded, he certainly did say that before meeting Minhyun. In less than a second he had immediately dropped the weight of his head and began to snore.

Whatever that meant – Minhyun looked away from the other he became sullen. Being so close to Kang made the tallest a little sad like always knowing that this could not go on forever, this could last maybe just a few more days before they get found out for being fake or Dongho breaks up with him. That way there wouldn’t be a reason for them to meet, hold hands or do other silly couple stuff. 

Minhyun had never met someone with the same personality as Dongho. So he valued him a lot and once it’s all over, at least Minhyun wished to remain close with him.

“What are we like friends now?” Minhyun disguised his wish as just a joke, already preparing to be turned down like always. Donghos sleep was light, he had heard him clearly.

“You kidding? Were like buddies now.” Dongho boasted, although his voice sounded slow and sleepy. 

“Really?” Minhyuns eyes sparked with hope. “Hell yeah, dude!” The other man spoke.

There was a pause. Dongho clicked his lips preparing to say something so Minhyun was left to wait for it, “Right now, I just have one small request from you.” 

He smiled at Minhyun in the dark, yet his smirk appeared to be rather pained, “Can you move your knee?”

“What knee?” Minhyun blinked his eyes at Dongho, confused by the question. “The one on my dick.” Dongho grinned harder, thus forcing his mouth wider.

“My knee is literally nowhere near the stench of your dick.” Minhyun angrily defended himself, and he was right. Dongho arched his neck up to stare down and found that Minhyuns legs were tied to his side, dangling off the beds edge.

His pupils grew smaller as if a sudden realization had struck him, “Oh, I see.” Without thinking to conceal himself from the scared eyes of Minhyun first, he landed his hand down the inside of his own pants and as soon as Dongho began to nervously chuckle it became evident to Minhyun what had happened to the bastard.

“Sorry, I haven’t gotten laid in a really long time.” He apologized, assuming that perhaps embracing Minhyun a second ago had given his brain the wrong signal so now he was stuck with a weird boner desperately wanting to break through.

“It must have happened when I hugged you.” He also defended himself, nervously chuckling and hoping that his friend would just forgive him this once.

“Hugged?” Minhyun scrolled his body back to sit at a safe distance, “Does this always happen to you when you are with girls?” Minhyun showed his frown of disapproval.

Dongho tried to sit differently, but it didn’t help. All he wanted right now was to sit up and just get it out. Although he was already too tired and on the verge of passing out, his own hand wouldn’t even reach to touch it again through his pants.

In dire times, Dongho developed ideas that perhaps weren’t always the brightest ones. “Hey Minhyun, you like dudes right?” He spoke casually.

“I really don’t like where this is going.” Minhyun had to admit. Dongho instantly went the beggars route, “You wouldn’t mind just a little, small hand job, right?”

Minhyuns stare became static, immune to Donghos wish. “Come on, it’s not even weird between guys. Every dude out there has held the dick of his best bud at least twice. No biggie.”

“Have you?” Minhyuns tone of voice came as an accusation. Dongho shrugged, “Once, I helped Aaron use the urinal at the ER after he had burnt both of his hands trying to flip an omelette on a pan.”

“You said two times.” Minhyun didn’t believe him. Dongho made a desperate smirk, “What if I told you it happened twice.”

Minhyun still wouldn’t budge, in fact his frown had grown even bigger. Dongho trashed his hips in the bed in midst of a needy tantrum. “If you help me, I’ll help you get Jonghyuns number later!” 

He thought of this as a way to pay Minhyun back, since he had seen Hwang hitting on that dude once before. But Minhyun didn’t care about that other guy at all, the one he wanted was Dongho, and he was growing upset with the fact that the jerk didn’t realize that before he was already begging Minhyun to beat the stick for him.

If he were to do this for Dongho, then Minhyun didn’t expect to just walk away from Kang empty handed. He made a cruel smile, and set his ultimatum for the deal. “If I suck you off now, you will owe me one in return.”

“Deal!” Dongho didn’t even hesitate, alas just seconds later he reopened his eyes, big like those of a scared cat realizing what that actually meant for him. He gulped in careful consideration, “Wait, I owe you?” Minhyun nodded, “Yup.”

The poor guy couldn’t decide, as if it was the hardest choice in his life. He was nervous, scared and his brain felt fried just by thinking about it.

“Ah, whatever fuck it. Just do it dude.” Dongho decided to just think about his repercussions later.

“Are you sure?” The question annoyed Dongho, he was about to start kicking his legs. “Yeah, I want it.” He pleaded, having no idea how desperate he made himself sound.

The tall man laughed at Donghos eagerness, and then positioned himself in-between knees. Creeping his hands up to undo the front of his pants.

“From one to ten, how sure are you?” Minhyun held the front button of Donghos pants in his fingers like a coin, taunting him.

“For fuck sakes, Hwang.” Dongho growled, Minhyun laughed back and finally popping that button through.

The sleepy male didn’t look anymore once Minhyun had pulled him out of his tight pants, he dropped his head into the pillows and hoped to fall asleep by picturing a hot broad touching him instead.

Minhyun gripped his palm around the heated skin, pointing the dick at himself and observing it’s pretty colours before gradually sliding his grasp from bottom to top, slowly at first and after a while with more grip and twist.

Dongho couldn’t sleep, he woke up with his eyes wide to the ceiling and the back of his skull arching away from the pillow. Minhyun did not intend for him to be sleeping right now, if he was going to do this, then he wanted to make sure Dongho would remember every part.

Minhyuns eyes became narrow, judging and evil. His hand always had the same average speed, for now he watched in joy as Donghos chest would raise with breaths. 

Dongho still didn’t dare to look, he could only sense the warmth of Minhyuns slander fingers sink down to the base and stay there. Instead, the tallest bought his chin down to replace his hand, parting his lips just above the tip to only breathe out hot air. Lead by an instinct, Donghos own hand travelled down to Minhyuns hair assuming that he could control and guide the mans lips to his dick. 

“Hey, don’t pull so hard.” Minhyun scolded the man while trying to bite in middle of his chuckle. 

“Then just do it already, idiot.” Dongho warned the jerk not to play around with him. But Minhyun was sinister, he wanted to make him wait.

The tallest nuzzled the dick against the outer side of his cheek, tilting his head towards it so only the edges of his parted mouth would smear wet against it. Then he took the thing in his mouth from its side, holding his fingertips positioned and pressed down at the top.

The other man whined and let out tiny mewls, high pitched sounds that didn’t really sound like the masculine and though Dongho which he played himself up to be. Now he appeared powerless and dependant. Although Dongho never complained, his brain had gone all mushy and unable to think of anything else other than Minhyuns heavenly lips currently on him.

Right before he started to shake, those lips finally began to earnestly swallow from the top. They rolled down on him, and a pair of cautious fingers gently pressed and stretched away from his body. Minhyuns tongue would mock him at first, only nibble and barely touch, then it would gradually lick back and leave behind a trail of droll. Minhyun rushed to bob his head down again, using the wetness to help ease himself in motion.

The shortest groaned from above, his fingers curled and flexed inside of Minhyuns short hair until the tall man had learned to understand what it meant each time Dongho pulled his hair.

Minhyun continued to suck down on him as if it had been an order, sliding out only to catch his breath or wipe the wet mess along the entire length. Dongho had his eyes winced closed the whole time, but occasionally he would now peek down at Minhyun through the curtain of his own twitching lashes.

In the heat, Minhyun suddenly drove up the front of Donghos shirt making his tummy jolt in reaction to the cold. His skin there was so smooth and soft, it was perhaps the fluffiest of his entire body, hidden away all this time under that shirt.

Dongho worked out quite a bit, but he didn’t have a very obvious six pack or anything yet. His belly was cute, his muscles would only protrude when he tensed them. Minhyun was able to follow Donghos body better by watching his stomach clench and release with every sharp breath.

Once his shirt was up, Dongho had opened his eyes to the view of the ceiling, “Wh—what is this for?” Dongho spoke in fear not realizing his question would interrupt Minhyun. The man released his lips from Dongho with a small wet pop.

“It was in the way.” He spoke, lips brushing against the tip of the dick that he was still holding up.

Despite his position, Dongho dared to become hot tempered, “In the way of what, you pervert?” His voice fell right at the end, right as Minhyuns tongue had ran a lap around him and gone down low.

Dongho swallowed his own words, he figured that maybe he had become the pervert himself now. Whatever, he didn’t care. 

“Shut up—Hwang.” Dongho silenced his bully, even if Minhyun wasn’t actually speaking at the moment, but he could just tell that the bastard was currently laughing at him inside of his head.

Minhyuns mouth became quick, but his lips remained set tight, by only letting small drops of drool leak from the corners. Dongho twitched in his mouth, trying to squirm and turn, but Minhyun kept rolling his lips over until it had become unbearable.

The feeling of building up and burning of hot fire collected inside of Donghos stomach like it was about to burst. Minhyun slicked his tongue around Donghos length for one last time, before he withdrew completely returning to jerking Dongho with his hand.

The boy started to twitch again, his hips clenched as if he was to throw a thrust into the air. Moans sweet like sugar poured from Donghos pretty lips above, the corners of his forcefully shut eyes glistened with tears of both stress and joy. 

Dongho was close, Minhyun could read his mouth forming a beg for help. His release escaped through the gaps of Minhyuns fingers. His face became relieved as if someone had drowned him in cold water after a wave of heat.

Minhyun had pulled his hand away to only watch. Mans small tummy would jolt in place as he came in short spurts, flooding down the creases of his folded skin. He made small tiny whines throughout. 

Hand returned – Minhyun gently continued to stroke him out until he would exit the state of ecstasy that he was in. Minhyun viewed blessed faces the man was making until they faded to nothing, Dongho was cutely asleep with his dick left laying withered on his stomach.

When the smoke finally settled, Minhyun pulled a thin blanket sheet over Donghos exhausted and dead hips, safely tucking him in to sleep. However, the short male wasn’t actually sleeping just yet, his eyes were glued shut, but his mind was fully awake and churning out the most confusing thoughts. 

He thought to himself, was he obligated to kiss Minhyun now? That’s always what he did with his female dates afterwards, but Minhyun was a guy and well, he was – Minhyun.

The tall male didn’t sit on the edge of the bed for long and began to find room to stand up, this triggered panic in Dongho. He didn’t want Minhyun to just walk off like it was nothing.

“Hey Hwang, you have to high five me.” Dongho launched his top half up like he had woken from a grave. Minhyun hesitated to meet his confused and slow hand with Donghos.

“What?” Minhyun just blinked his eyes at Donghos awkward attempt to probably normalize the interaction in his head. “Just—do what I say, you bastard.” He nervously threatened, as if he had a gun in a trembling hand.

The awkward clap of their hands meeting in the middle was the loudest thing in the room.

Dongho sat there thinking – now what. He didn’t feel intimidated or regretful in front of Minhyun afterwards. He thought that he should maybe be at least a bit ashamed, but he wasn’t. Minhyun was silent, perhaps he was the one feeling guilty, but the guy only flashed a reassuring grin.

The mattress shifted, and Minhyun drew distance away from Dongho, fading into the dark room. Dongho didn’t hold him back this time, he wanted to sleep. He immediately threw himself back down, rolling onto his side and pulling the blanket up to his face. 

His headache induced whine sounded like a muffled squawk into the pillow.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ive finally lost it and im posting my second update in a single day just imagine how the tag would look like if i actually updated the chapter publication date properly every time i updated

A horrible buzz woke Dongho up another few days later. That buzz was the sound of the alarm which had gone off for the fifth time this hour already, yet Donghos tired body didn’t wish to move an inch.

After managing to silence it, he screamed inside of his pillow, so much that dust rocketed from the inside of the fabric into the dimly lit room where the window blinds still stood stacked and shut even at noon time. All that came of his scream was a muffled sound that didn’t even go past the thin walls of his aunts apartment.

This morning, Donghos tired eyelashes were stuck together like they were held by glue, his hair was standing pointing straight up from his head like the leaves of an upright pineapple, and he was in bed without a blanket wearing only his underwear as well as socks. A groan erupted from his throat, he was too pained to move muscles that had gone sore from use.

Dongho raised his head to see that the other kids he roomed with were out already, so he just concluded that he had already missed out on breakfast by then. There shouldn’t be a rush for him to sit up in bed.

Despite his own suggestion to keep sleeping in, his spine literally spring-loaded itself away from the mattress to be awake, he kicked his legs, threw the sheets under him. Just like every other morning soon after that firework event, first thing he did after waking up was to remember what him and Minhyun did together on that night.

Of course Dongho could not remember everything, but he remembered just enough to find himself awake up with his back sometimes drenched in sweat. 

The parts he was missing from his head had to do mainly with him getting home after that. The cash bills still sat nicely tucked away in his jean pocket untouched after he had reappeared in his original home, meaning that at least he had not paid for his own cab, so Minhyun must have had done it for him.

Yet somehow everyone else around him were already aware of what had happened that night even more than he knew what had happened himself. Of course, it wasn’t hard for anyone to make lewd guesses to explain where the two adults had gone missing overnight and why. This was Donghos fault.

He rubbed his aching temples. “Why the hell did I do that?” Dongho could only blame just himself for it. 

He wasn’t ever mad at Minhyun and didn’t entirely regret it, in fact, he was mostly worried about what that other guy might think of him now – Dongho as some kind of a sore loser, a guy who asks weird things from his friends, Dongho as the guy who almost threw up in his car at then got hard from just hugging him, things like that.

That wasn’t the last of his troubles however. For the past few days, each single night Dongho made plans to hang out with his stupid friends, with them he went out drinking till he was sick, flirted with girls in clubs. It was usually fun, but something didn’t feel quite right anymore. He had become mellow, even more distracted from things around him than during an exam week.

He had hit it off with a few women recently, but Dongho always ended up backing out of his own dates at the very last second for seemingly no reason. That has never happened to him before, it troubled him greatly because he couldn’t get lucky and laid anymore, yet it wasn’t too hard to pin point the exact reason for it.

Dongho slouched over sitting on the edge of the bed, viciously screwing thumbs into the sides of his head to ease the imaginary pressure crushing the skull.

This all started ever since that night with Minhyun, right after that guy had touched him. Now every time he was with a woman he just couldn’t get himself in the mood anymore. Images of Hwang from that night kept randomly invading his thoughts and ruining everything for him each time. He would be forced to make up some dumb lies to go home flaccid and embarrassed as hell, hoping the word about him wouldn’t spread.

Even now when he closed his eyes and pictured the hottest magazine model in his room, now matter what type of inner energy he channelled to get himself riled up, only Minhyuns mocking laugh would echo inside of his head like an empty hall.

It was clear, Hwang had seriously messed with his brain. Dongho knew this was just temporary, but it was still stressing him out. Additionally, he hadn’t really bought it up to Minhyun, the devil, himself as such a thing would probably be exactly what that perverted bastard would want to hear. That guy would feel no remorse for cursing Donghos dick.

Still sitting on his messy bed, Dongho sat there for a while more until he had decided that he was done being angry at nothing. He plopped his body back into the bed and grabbed his phone to entertain himself.

His fingers scrolled over his long list of contacts, friends, numbers belonging to girls he still hadn’t deleted yet after they had all dumped him, and a specific number named simply as – bastard, Minhyuns number.

Donghos finger lingered on the screen, thinking about the guy for a bit. He seemed like a busy person overall, the fact that he took so much out of his own time to do bidding for Dongho while expecting days of no contact from him afterwards was truly noble.

Although, Minhyun rarely texted him. Every time he did they were always ways to taunt Dongho, like purposely bad pickup lines and mocking remarks to make him upset. Their last exchange was recent, they discussed the party that they had attended and people they had then successfully fooled. Minhyuns last messages were of him being worried about Dongho and him getting home safely after getting into a cab. The final text was him telling Dongho goodnight, then no response from the other.

Curious by the current status of the man who had not texted him in days since, like any other curious individual, and he swore he wasn’t being just a creep, Dongho went straight to stalking his social media. He was finding posts and pictures of Hwang along side small theatre celebrities hinting that he was participating in some stage play.

Dongho fixated his eyes on the image of Minhyun dressed to go on stage himself. It made him scratch his head, realizing that he really didn’t know that much about this guy, Minhyun never shared many personal details about himself.

The man in his bed pushed his upper body up from laying down and sat up again, his toes blindly tapped around the floor to find bedside slippers, while Dongho himself continued to stare only at his phone. Right before his own eyes he saw a new photo appearing at the very top, that meant Minhyun had uploaded just a second ago. Eyeballs popped wide, Dongho raced to see it.

It was a picture of Minhyun and a same aged female friend posing behind him while he sat. Strangely enough, the nicely dressed lady seemed familiar to Dongho, he sat there for a few seconds trying to remember ever seeing such a face. 

As soon as he realized, he spoke out loud, “Wait isn’t that—?”

Long after the play, backstage had become a lot busier than before. The waiting rooms were loaded up with smiles and laugher, flowers and presents were given off by friends and family to the actors to commemorate the successful play.

Minhyun felt slightly bitter that his own family had not shown up, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary. The last time he had probably seen his own actress mother was the last time she had come to watch him, and that was ages ago. Hoping his father would take his precious time to ever come see his son perform was out of the question.

But of course, he still got a pat on the back and a direct thanks from his senior actors which meant a lot, but even that couldn’t make up for it. He stood there without his flowers, without family who could be proud of him.

The other actors had finished up getting dressed down and left, leaving just two of the cast still sitting in the make-up room. They were snapping photos before getting out of their fancy costumes.

Minhyun was wearing a late Victorian era garb, a slim fit frock coat in black falling to his mid thigh. The woman taking pictures with him was wearing a long shining gown, her hair had been done up in one long braid.

She pulled her smiling face out of the frame almost as soon as the photo was snapped, reverting back to a default static expression. He asked his friend, referring to her as Eunwoo, if she had liked the pictures they took. She acted indifferent, knowing she probably looked good in them all regardless without even looking.

The two weren’t that close, although they had known one another for years. They only knew each other because they both shared a similar background, naturally the rich kids always stuck together even if they didn’t like one another that much.

Eunwoo stood over his shoulder for long enough to see him upload it directly and the photo appeared on his timeline photos amongst the other most recent photos – a bunch of boyfriend shots of some other man, his new plaything it seemed like.

Surprised by something that had caught her eye, she leaned back down, her chin hovering just above Minhyuns shoulder to snoop his screen. That man on the screen looked familiar, yet she wasn’t particularly good with memorizing faces of men. Defeated by her own bad memory, she shrugged.

“You got yourself a new arm candy already?” She stood and crossed her arms, acting uninterested.

Minhyun didn’t look back to nod, instead just kept adoring the screen of his phone where that man was. “Something like that.” He smiled.

The woman was quick to believe it, since Minhyun was both cunning and a scum. The guy ate naïve and frail hearted hearts of men for lunch. Eunwoo voiced her guess as a joke, “So are you just gonna play around with him and then break his heart as soon as you get bored again?”

“Perhaps.” Minhyun chuckled loudly, taking that as a very probable possibility, one he didn’t wish for of course, but give the circumstances it seemed likely. 

“But I really like this one.” He spoke fondly of Dongho, whom he considered more than just a simple fling like all the others.

He thought of the guy as a friend, which served importance since Minhyun rarely felt the need to build and remain friendships with people if they weren’t beneficial to him in the long run. 

Eunwoo couldn’t relate to him liking that guy. She had no idea what aminhyun saw in that person as he looked just like any other failing athlete collage boy. Minhyun stared at his screen until it dimmed, then he rushed to get dressed in order to leave.

Only after half an hour, and after his friend had gone before him, he was back to looking like his normal self again. Getting out of that historic outfit was a pain in the ass – As an accurate portrayal of what aristocrats of that time actually wore, there were no easy zippers underneath the costume.

The staff had helped him, treating the stage costume so preciously almost as if their lives would instantly end if they were to accidentally drop it on the dirty floor.

Once free to go home Minhyun had walked not far out from the dressing room, before he overheard a voice in the background arguing with someone – a very high pitched and familiar voice.

He sped his step to turn corner and see Dongho being caught by one of the stage managers after trying to smuggle himself into the staff access only area of the backstage. The guy had come up with this bullshit story about how he was working part time here as a broadcast student, but his lies were sewn thin.

Just before Dongho was about to get kicked out, Minhyun appeared to save him, “Hey, you came!” Minhyun threw his arm over Donghos shoulder and after the distraction was made, he promptly dragged him from the staff employee.

They returned to the make-up room, only this time they were both alone in it. Dongho held his breath in front of Minhyun, feeling guilty only because he had been caught so foolishly. He was short looking up at the menacing tall man who still looked dashing long after his performance, even after his make up had been removed.

“Hey.” Dongho scratched the back of his neck, acting like he had swung by just to say that. 

Minhyuns eyes followed his fingers, picking and plucking on an the discoloured residue of old healing bruise that was once there. It was his own handiwork.

“Why are you acting up, who told you to come here?” Minhyun started to scold him. Dongho opened his mouth to say the truth, but he stopped himself and had only empty air pushed out from his lungs. 

The guy knew that this stage play was probably a big thing for the rookie actor, he had done some reading about it on the website of the theatre that he worked for. More importantly, Dongho also knew that according to Minhyun himself, his parents weren’t really that involved in his life. So Dongho pitied him, he couldn’t help, but to feel bad and so he came to be the only person to congratulate him for the play.

“What is it?” Minhyun angrily tapped his foot waiting for Dongho to finish. Yet the guy had no guts to, plus he didn’t want to make Minhyun feel worse by bringing up his parents.

“No reason, just wanted to come and laugh at your dumb face that is all.” Dongho insulted, causing Minhyun to at least laugh about it.

The tallest mocked him once more, by now it was endless circle of the two men bullying one another. “I didn’t see you in the crowd, did you not get a seat because you sneaked past the ticket booth too?” 

Dongho growled, wishing nothing but the worst upon his tall enemy. Then he crossed his arms and his angry frown went away after just a little while. He began to speak in a normal tone again, but his eyes had grown shy of staring at Minhyun. 

Even now Dongho was being plegued by his intrusive thoughts of Hwang from that one time together. He didn’t even know how to bring up that night. While Hwang was acting like he had forgotten about it, as if it didn’t mean a thing.

“I thought it would be awkward to send a text. So I came in person to check up on you.” Dongho admitted and also implied the reasoning behind his lack of contact in these past few days.

Minhyun tilted his head trying to pick up what Dongho was suddenly saying, but the short man only continued to speak quickly.

“And well, to congratulate you on your stage play thing.” He sounded so clumsy admitting to everything that he almost blushed.

Minhyun listened well, but he still couldn’t process why was Dongho congratulating him out of the blue, knowing very well that this guy gave zero fucks about stage plays. Usually people complimented him just to get on his good side. 

“Is that it?” Minhyun asked.

Minhyun appeared to be immune to praise, as plenty of important strangers had told him that they adored his performances just the same way alreadt. It didn’t matter to Minhyun when people pointed out how he was good at things, ever since an early childhood he had been spoiled with those words and they never meant a thing.

Dongho became visibly flustered at Minhyuns lack of reaction, the guy was so unmoved and stiff, unable to process even a single compliment. There was something wrong with him, something troubled Hwang and it was shown right on his face.

“You shouldn’t have come then.” Minhyun spoke, when it had finally crept up to him as for why Dongho was here. 

That guy merely just pitied him and Minhyun hated it. If he had known that Dongho would feel pressured to do this nonsense of filling in for his parents, then Minhyun would have never opened up to him about it.

This whole time Minhyun had been trying to supress that void, the feeling of loneliness he had inside of him, so why did Dongho have to bring it back up make it even more obvious to him.

“You should go home before your auntie gets mad at you for leaving house. Call me on another day.” Minhyun suggested, but his body language was distant from his own words. He didn’t want for Dongho to call him for now.

Dongho was devastated watching Minhyun brush past him like that. “Hey, wait!” He called the guy leaving him behind.

“Minhyun—” Donghos voice followed him out into the corridor that lead from the same dressing room. Hearing his own name come from the mouth of that man had made Hwang stop, as if he had been cursed and could no move.

Why couldn’t he suddenly move when it was Dongho calling his name. Minhyun didn’t have a clue.

A tug on his sleeve woke him up from his panicked state, Dongho pulled him by just two of his fingers that held the thin fabric of his sleeve, easily able to slip away with the slightest pull.

“Can you take me home? I took a random cab to get here.” Dongho gestured himself pulling his pockets inside out with nothing left inside other than rusty pre-war era coins and bread crumbs. A stressed smile was glued to his face 

Minhyun groaned so loud that perhaps the whole first row could hear it coming from this far. Dongho had driven out all the way to meet him, which was noble of him considering he could be out chasing after women like he always did instead. Naturally Minhyun became obligated to deliver him back to his aunt alive and mostly attached to all of his limbs before the next morning.

The two sat in Hwangs car and thus began the most awkward car ride ever known to man. They were both silent as hell. Dongho was afraid of Minhyun, or rather afraid of saying the wrong thing to his friend again.

“I am sorry.” Dongho randomly blurt out while they were waiting at a traffic stop a minute away from the destination. Minhyun spared the guy a glance, “Don’t be, you didn’t do anything wrong, idiot.”

Dongho quickly became frustrated with Minhyun again, but instead of saying a word he just went silent, so silent that his face changed from neutral to threatening. He knew he had been a jerk to the guy, he deserved to be yelled at for it.

However, his temper fell as soon as he heard Minhyuns laugh, in this situation hearing it had a calming effect. Dongho turned his head to the source of the sound, the boy beside him glowing up with faked smiles.

Dongho became sad again realizing that Minhyun was only pretending to smile to make him not feel bad, as if Minhyun was making up for himself earlier. Dongho believed that the guy had nothing to apologize for, he wasn’t the guilty one in this situation.

“I am glad – glad that you came to congratulate me.” Hwang reached his hand to gently pat his friend on the back of his head, although to Dongho the pats felt more like intended slaps.

Minhyun grinned at the corner of his lip once Dongho reacted by letting out an “Ow!” This time his smile was genuine.

A few more turns and they were basically at the end of the drive. Minhyun paused his car right next to a curb to drop Dongho off, but the guy wasn’t so eager to step out of the car yet.

Dongho gazed directly at his friend beside him, hesitant breaths made their way from his slightly parted lips. He was usually so blunt and direct, but in front of Minhyun, something made him switch up.

He quickly leaned into Minhyun, who expected for it to be a bear hug, but was shocked to feel his friend steal a kiss from him. It was open mouthed, but short lived. The short male retreated just as quickly as he had came, his face too flustered to form an expression.

“What was that all about?” Minhyun almost didn’t recognize the guy, while Dongho didn’t even recognize himself.

Dongho instantly started to speak as if someone was holding a gun pointed at his head, “You looked so sad. I just wanted to cheer you up.” 

“I see.” Minhyun observed the red eared Dongho. He then assumed that Dongho again felt bad for him, and thus he tried to comfort him – how kind.

Dongho recognized how the kiss did nothing to fix Hwang, neither did it manage to fix himself. In that moment shortly prior, out of nowhere Dongho had remembered that night with him and Minhyun, and being so close to him had made him want to kiss him. He believed that he was starting to go crazy.

“See you tomorrow, take care of yourself.” Dongho announced, although they had not made any plans tomorrow. Minhyun wanted to ask, but the guy was already out of the seat and barging out of the car.

It wasn’t the random kiss that had made Minhyun blush, it was him watching Dongho clumsily run from the car and tripping his feet on just about every uneven spot of concrete in the way.


	9. Chapter 9

A nervous figure hid behind a doorframe of the universities gym locker room twiddling and peeling his fingernails for a very long time before entering the said room.

In these few following days, Aaron for stupid reasons hadn’t seen Dongho once, so right now he felt like he needed to somehow catch up with Dongho – apologize or talk to him, just something, anything at all. 

Aaron had to see him, for days he had been twisting and turning in his bed over it, unable to live down his own loud thoughts. He had told himself that he wouldn’t beat around the bush in front of Dongho. The guy wanted to know what the fuck had happened on that night when he had walked in on Dongho and Minhyun in middle of making out – was it something he should be worried about, was his best friend hiding something.

His memory of it was still fresh and vivid, perhaps even too vivid. For days Donghos relaxed and calm face of that night was all Aaron could think of and it always caught him off guard when such weird thoughts invaded his rationality.

The guy knew he would find his friend at the gym today like always, probably practicing late before heading back home where he had to share his bedroom with his loud cousins.

Without being noticed, Aaron snuck into the locker room looking for Dongho who should be already getting ready to head home by that time. 

Dongho was indeed there fresh out of the last minutes of vigorous practice. He was left alone in the locker room so he didn’t bother to dress quickly. Before approaching said male, Aaron took a deep breath before walking out in front of him and making his presence known.

“Hey, Kang.” Aaron acted brave, for reasons assuming that his friend would be unhappy to see him. However the guy was as bright and smiley as ever – the biggest relief in his life.

“Oh crap, maybe I should’ve knocked first.” Aaron only now realized that Dongho was just about to slip out of his clothes and become shirtless in front of him.

“It’s fine, don’t act like you haven’t seen this before.” Dongho laughed out loud, a moment later he bent down to the side for a bit to pick up his pants that stationed on the floor crumpled up into a ball.

“Didn’t know you would still be around this late?” Dongho jumped back up and continued to speak, acting surprised about Kwak showing up.

It did feel a little bit weird for Kang to be meeting him now like this, since he had no idea what he had said or done to Aaron the last time they saw each other. He had pretty much drunk at the time meaning he could’ve done anything. That whole part of the night right before he had ended up at Minhyuns place was the blurriest for him. The only thing he could recall was that he had somehow made Aaron upset.

“Yeah,” Aaron nodded back, face void of any expression while his eyes cautiously watched his friend itch the back of his sweaty neck. 

Dongho was still in his martial arts clothes, he was just about ready to go take a shower before Aaron had shown up. The man was exhausted, panting after having had pushed himself to the max. Dongho was usually the lazy type, but today he had trained hard and all on his own.

For some wicked reason his eyes became glued to the guys outfit that should otherwise be obvious since Kang did martial arts. Today Kang looked nicer in it, but has he always looked this good? Aaron had to ask himself.

“You are still here damn late yourself too.” Aaron made his friend feel a bit guilty. Dongho nervously chuckled, acting quite obvious that there was some big reason behind it.

“I’m just here to clean up my mind.” He dodged instead of speaking truthfully. “It’s super helpful! Working out really takes everything you are concerned about right off like a breeze.” He added.

“You should actually try it some time, even though I know you hate joining me in practice and all.” Dongho continued to talk, not realizing that he was talking to a wall.

“Yeah, totally.” Aaron nodded to pretend that he had heard, still shamelessly staring at his friends body.

From his neck there was a slit opening reaching down to his chest, Dongho had been training for a while now so by now the once properly suited up training outfit was wide open now. Aarons eyes involuntary flickered to the mans tattooed chest inside, his skin glistening and dripping with sweat streaming down from his neck.

Aaron gulped, forcing his own eyes shut. “The fuck is wrong with me today?” He cursed under his breath, but not loud enough for Dongho to hear it.

“Huh?” Dongho though he had heard his friend curse for no reason. Aaron proceeded to shake his head to knock out all weird thoughts that had never appeared to him before this.

“Nothin’.” He murmured, bringing a finger right under his nose pretending to wipe something there just to have an excuse for covering the bottom half of his face.

“Well then what do you think?” Dongho jumped back on track, only to be met with confusion, “Think sbout what?” Aaron was clueless for not listening.

“Uhh, joining my practice sometime? I need a gym buddy.” Dongho reminded him. He acted rather spry and his eyes had gone big and beady.

“Yeah, sure.” Oldest blurt out, mentally slapping himself for it. 

That question had hit him too fast, he didn’t even have time to think and he ended up signing up for something he hated. There was something glowing inside of Donghos eyes that had lured Aaron to say yes, some kind of a puppyish charm that Dongho wasn’t so aware of himself. Aaron felt used. 

“Hey neat!” Dongho cheered, going back to undoing his outfit before shower. Aaron instantly wanted to scream, as he was just about to bring up Minhyun, but now once Dongho was getting undressed, he had to get the fuck out of here and he didn’t even know what for.

“I’ll see you later then!” Aaron fled. Dongho was surprised to see him go so quickly. “Call me!” Dongho yelled his voice after him.

Jonghyun walked out of class with some spring in his step once he was done with the longest school day ever. Things were getting busier and busier with each day before the exams, he ended up staying in school late by just doing assignments in the universities hallways with the help of his classmates.

While he was already heading out, out of nowhere, something hit Jonghyun in the back of his neck making him almost choke up his own throat. 

Mingi had come charging at him right as he had spotted the guy in the last crowd exiting the university. By hanging an arm across Jonghyuns shoulders, Mingi turned him around and steered him the opposite. Trying to force the guy into a conversation while doing so.

The two began to bicker about something on their way back inside, but soon they came upon something, or someone that made them pause their step.

“Hey, Jonghyun?” Mingi was eyes wide and focused ahead, as if he had just remembered something important. Gradually his face had turned into a frowning grimace. “Don’t you think Aaron has been acting kinda weird these days?”

“What do you mean?” Jonghyun didn’t understand until he turned his head to look into the direction where Mingi was looking. 

Before them both was the said man, sitting legs wide spread on the buildings steps, ravaging a sandwich while longingly staring into the distance.

Jonghyun turned to look back at Mingi, “Isn’t that’s how he is normally?” 

There was a sigh. Mingi pushed past Jonghyuns low shoulder and went ahead to plop himself down on the same step as Aaron, lining up next to him. Aaron turned his head slowly, cheeks so full of food that the lettuce from his sandwich hanged from his mouth like a second tongue.

“Did you fight with someone?” Mingi didn’t sound compassionate, rather he sounded like he was just here for the gossip.

As per usual, Aaron wasn’t very well with keeping secrets – the guy instantly decided to spill. “I think I am going to break up with my girlfriend soon.” He voiced his regret.

Mingi already saw this coming, not like he hadn’t noticed any signs, but he just did. The fact that Aaron had lasted in a relationship for even this long was a miracle. 

“Oh no! Why do you think that?” The youngest worried, joined by Jonghyun who was genuinely saddened to hear that.

Under the sad cloud of rain hovering above his own head, Aaron shrugged his shoulders sitting in-between his two friends hugging from each side. 

“I rarely call or text her these days, so I haven’t been fair to her. She deserves someone better than a good for nothing guy like me.” He sighed.

Mingi nodded his head low. While Jonghyun chuckled at something that had popped into his head at the wrong time, he began facing away so he wouldn’t be smiling directly into the face of the grieving man. 

“Interesting, one of us started dating and the other broke up.” Jonghyun had thought about Dongho. Aarons eyes became glassy and wide at the mention of that guy.

Mingi and Jonghyun both poked their chins up in sync as Aaron had suddenly stood up from the steps. He did so as if something had bit him while sitting down, and bit him hard. The guy looked panicked.

Aaron waved his goodbye and then bolted from his friends. Mingi ignored Aaron being gone and instead slid himself on the step closer to Jonghyun to take Aarons previous seat. Mingi was now giving his friend that same doll like face he always made whenever he wanted to ask to copy Jonghyuns notes.

The lazy evening sun had been burning Donghos back after having already done circled the sky, it sank over the horizon behind him. He walked his way home on foot, a duffel bag thrown over his own shoulder. The path was so long that by the time he got back it felt like he would need another cold shower for all that walking.

In short distance from the apartments, he randomly noticed Minhyuns sports car parked up at the front. His first reaction was to take cover behind another parked truck beside him, as if he was dodging the enemy bullets in an action movie.

He stuck his neck out to see past its corner, his long nose hesitantly poked out first, then the rest of the side of his face. Donghos eyes shot lasers at the man sitting in his car as if he were waiting for his pretend boyfriend. Dongho couldn’t figure out why he had come.

In that moment, he was too preoccupied with glaring at Minhyun to notice the pile of boxes and bags of garbage stacked on the curb of the street by the car. Once it clicked for him, Dongho stumbled out of his cover in absolute horror – it was all of his stuff.

Confused and enraged Dongho sprinted like a track runner to catch up to Minhyuns car and ask the very same bastard what was going on. Why were his belongings suddenly out on the street for anyone to take.

Minhyun greeted him with a pleased smirk, rolling down the window of his car. The jerk was diligently guarding the stuff from being picked off by the birds, but because he simply liked Dongho.

“Looks like you are getting evicted, that’s a shame.” Minhyun pretend to pout, forming kissy lips.

Dongho took a step back to look up at the apartment window of his home, finding the windows of his own room drawn shut. “This can’t be happening.” Dongho didn’t doubt his eviction, at this point it was long overdue.

“Your aunt finally got sick of you, huh?” Minhyun teased the man who seemed too shocked to even speak. It made Dongho hissed steam out from his nostrils. 

“Then why the fuck are you here?” He suddenly barked at the only person nice enough to stand guard to his stuff, not that he actually owned anything of value.

Minhyun only further acted like he was hurt. “Your aunt called me to pick it up for you. I mean I would, but the thing is that I dating you, you know? So I don’t know what to do with it.”

Dongho paced his feet back and forth in anger, unable to process that he had been fully kicked out yet. Although, his aunt kept telling him to quit living on her neck and move out one day, he didn’t expect it to happen right now. It was a ploy – it had to be. The old woman wanted to force Dongho to live with his new boyfriend instead.

Realizing his horrible predicament he felt like grabbing into his own hair and falling his knees down onto the pavement to cry. He didn’t want to move out yet without getting a proper a job first, but if he told the truth about Minhyun not actually being his boyfriend to his aunt, he doubt that the woman would still let him back in.

Dongho hadn’t saved up for emergencies like this, all the money he got was always immediately spent. Plus, all of his previous richer older girlfriends were wise enough to only spoil him with expensive foods, so now he had nothing to his name to even sell away for cash except for himself.

Pretending to be deep in his own thoughts, Minhyun thinned his lips and then released, then trying to sound coy and unsuspicious, “I mean, if you did move in, it would be way closer to your school.”

“No way.” Dongho instantly denounced that idea. 

“I could drive you there everyday by car.” Minhyun continued to add. “Go screw yourself.” Dongho spat out even more mean words. 

“You wouldn’t have to do chores and I’d do the cooking.” After Minhyun said that, Dongho really hesitated this time, because it was really hard to turn this one down. 

“Listen dude, there is no way in hell am I going to live with you even for a day.” He put his foot down.

“Then I guess you just have to tell everyone the truth. There is literally nothing else I can do here to help you.” Minhyun made fun of Dongho, sitting there in his comfy car seat, unwilling to lift a damn finger.

This made the other guy have a sudden change of heart. “Wait, you still have to help me!” 

His yell made Minhyun jolt in his seat. A panicked Dongho suddenly threw himself at the door of the car, hinging his fingers tight and firm through the window to prevent Minhyun from closing. His knees were squat to meet the height of the low window.

Minhyun reached his hand outside of the cars window, tilting Donghos face up by the chin. The shorter man gulped being forced to look into the shark eyes of the other man.

The little bastard now wanted Dongho to beg for it, it was too obvious. Dongho swallowed his pride to push it out of himself to convince Minhyun to give him a temporary home. 

“How about just a few days? Huh?” He inflicted a smile at Minhyun, however the tall male was immune to his curse. 

Dongho deserved to live under the sky for being so mean to Minhyun and then still easily expecting for him to serve him, the tallest had changed his mind about helping.

Minhyun stuck out his tongue and started slapping Donghos fingers for him to let go, but the guy resisted, leaning his head right through the cars window to prevent Minhyun from starting the engine. The two argued and bickered until small rain began to pepper the ground.

Minhyun felt bad at this point when Dongho began to cry about his text books getting soaked, and helped him lift everything into the car. Then they were off together.

Minhyun wasn’t too bothered to house another person in his apartment out of the blue, likening having Dongho living with him to owning a house pet, someone to play with once he’d get home. For obvious reasons, the other guy was left unamused by the comparison.

It was apparent that Dongho was only going crash at his place for a few days, because he really didn’t have a place to go for now at least. He was sure he could arrange something with one of his friends. Jonghyun or Mingi surely wouldn’t mind Dongho rooming with him, but those people never sleep until four am, it would be a pain. There were other alternatives, but for now his last hope was hoping that Aaron could help him out soon.

They had quickly neared the high-rise district soon after driving off. Buildings stood tall and were made of glass, a fancy hotel like elevator bought them from the underground parking to a high floor near the top.

Dongho had seen the apartment only once and it was pitch dark, so walking in here again during the bright hours of the day was as if this was his first time here. Except for the single washroom on the side, the place was one large open room. A high bar counter separated the black and white chess tiles of the kitchen from the dark coated wood floor of the living room – its main attraction being the large curved TV.

The couches and just about any other chair you could sit on had the same characteristic, it was made of black leather, flat and square and less comfortable to sit on than a coffin.

Dongho briefly poked his nose into the bedroom, just like everything else in this apartment, the colors of black and white dominated the interior, yet a few silver and gold accents made this place seem like a small palace. It was modern, alas small, but spacious enough for one persons living. There was also a see through wall separating the bedroom from the living room and the kitchen, it was a black mesh of zigzags — totally Art deco.

The tall male was acting bossy in his own house, not helping Dongho carry any of his move in boxes.

“Just don’t bring any girls home.” Minhyun continued to nag after Dongho. “Yeah, yeah.” The other yawned, ignoring him.

Dongho suddenly remembered something, surprisingly Hwang hadn’t bought it up to him first. He slowly turned around after placing one of the bags of plastic on the floor, “What do I gotta pay you to stay here for now?”

Minhyun blinked, “Nothing. You can stay here for as long as you want.” Dongho acted shocked, baffled to even believe it.

“Why? I don’t need money.” Minhyun replied, clueless to know how spoiled he sounded to Dongho who placed in his situation would demand anyone to either pay up front or get the boot.

“Actually,” Minhyun started to look around for where he had thrown his wallet. He picked it up from a low coffee table and opened it, releasing the sweet stench of paper cash into the room.

“Here is your first allowance.” Minhyun took out banknotes between his index and his middle finger, wagging them in front of Dongho like a treat. With this much money he could rent out a whole corner of a restaurant and eat a real feast, Donghos eyes had gone big and beady.

“You will need it for a cab to get around since you hate riding with me so much.” Minhyun instructed.

Before he had even accepted the money out of Minhyuns hand, he was already making a slight bow of gratitude at the other man who he hadn’t yet realized was spoiling him. But as Dongho was reaching, he suddenly held back. 

“There has to be some kind of a catch.” Dongho argued with himself, hovering his greedy little fingers just a touch away from the cash.

The tallest carefully darted his eyes from left to right and licked his lips behind the front row of his top teeth before reminding Dongho of something. “You do owe me, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already.” Seconds later this had triggered an explosive fight or flight reaction from Dongho.

“Of course I remember!” Dongho acted defensive, “All because of you, and after that single night, I haven’t gotten laid yet. Asshole.” He whined.

“Now, how is that even remotely my fault?” Minhyun point at himself, unable to find a connection.

Dongho pointed a finger at him, wishing that in the moment he were somewhat taller to seem more intimidating, but he couldn’t hold that frowning grimace for long. “Because of what you and me did.” Dongho corrected.

Even though Dongho didn’t seem to recall a lot of that night, but the spell that bind Minhyun in his mind would not simply go away. Whenever he was with a girl the ghost of the tall, handsome male always invaded his mind. 

“Oh, is that so?” A smile slowly crept up on Minhyuns face while the shortest glared up at his enemy, his eyes squint small. “I should’ve choked you out while I had the chance.” He grunt.

Minhyun leaned his neck back just slightly, trying to avoid the sharp end of Donghos finger aimed at him. He found it funny, as if it were a small victory that he had somehow managed to imprint himself into Donghos mind that much. It made him devilishly proud.

Dongho shot his expression away, thinking about how was he going to go about repaying that same deed to this bastardly prick. Not sober probably, that’s for sure.

The shortest cleared his own throat, even though he had never spoken enough to earn himself a tired one. “So where do I sleep then?” The man crossed his arms, standing and not moving an inch before Minhyun would tell him. The house owner simply shrugged, that wasn’t his problem.

“Wherever you want, as long as I am not the one sleeping on the floor.” Tallest spoke. Minhyuns foot kicked a fur carpet on the floor, implying that Dongho should assume actually the role of the house pet by sleeping on the ground.

In quick response, Dongho tried not to growl, flash his teeth or do anything else that would further fuel Minhyuns sick fantasies. “And you want me to sleep on the ground? Are you out of your mind?”

He desperately started to look around the place, finding only those horribly flat surface chairs around him, that felt rock hard under the press of a finger. He whined, but arms crossed Minhyun stood there as if he didn’t care.

Minhyun grinned and waved his hand, “Go look around then, find a place that fits.” Dongho lost his will to argue with this guy, “Fine.” He gave in to use this chance and snoop around a strangers home.

First thing he had noticed when walking into the living room was how the guy didn’t have any family photos up, instead paintings of scenic sights were placed nice and neat on the walls. The shelves of toys or music cd’s that Dongho was so used of having back in his own room, were replaced by heavy shelves of books.

Aside from the flashy TV Dongho didn’t like this place too much, it wasn’t homely at all. He knew he would only ever come here to sleep or store his stuff, as for the rest of the day he would be at school as usual or sleeping at houses of his dates if he’s lucky.

While Dongho was sneaking around Minhyuns apartment, the home owner decided that it was his right to go through the other mans stuff inside of the boxes the same way. He squat down to carelessly toss things in and out the box he deemed uninteresting, until he found a small bag pouch which stored an interesting collection of long thin steel rods.

“Hey, I didn’t know you were into this kinda stuff?” Minhyun spoke, not expecting for Dongho to already be there standing over him.

“You mean knitting?” Dongho squat down with him to dig out and present to Minhyun his proud ball of yarn. Minhyun blinked his eyes, “Yeah, – knitting. Didn’t know you are into that.”

Dongho grinned trying to act like it was no big deal and he totally wasn’t flustered by someone praising him for his rare hobby. 

“My parents used to put me on time outs by making me knit.” He longingly looked up as if there was an open sky above him, “I’ve made a sock for every foot in the city.”

“Interesting.” Minhyun couldn’t even imagine it.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i made a fic cover for ch.1 cool stuff cool stuff

Although because of a new roommate, Minhyun had given his housemaid a paid vacation. It was expected that living with him would be easy for Hwang, since the guy didn’t do much at home and was more low maintenance than a house cat. Minhyun had always wanted one, but his allergies had prevented him, sadly Dongho didn’t seem on board with the idea of being made called one.

Though there were some moments where things could’ve quickly spiralled into passion between him and his new roommate, like when he’d walk in on Dongho – sockless and clipping his almost ingrown looking toenail directly on Minhyuns bed, but the tall man knew to avert his eyes from it. 

That guy had not slept here overnight yet, instead laying who knows where out in the world. He was outside for most of the day as well, but eventually Dongho got home tonight. 

As soon as he had the door of the apartment opened for him, he already feeling like a bird in the cage. Dongho shrugged in place of greeting the bastard. He had only come home to shower, because as soon as he could the guy would already be out the door looking for a new adventure, of course not before asking to borrow a bit of money from his new roommate.

That is why the guy only found a reason to ever thank Minhyun as soon as the guy had given him the cash. For now Dongho tried to ignore his unpaid debts for now and headed back out again that same night, to get himself drunk and end up in clutches of some stranger.

By the time the sun was bought back up again from behind the horizon, it was already close to noon. Minhyun had greatly overslept, he moved his body just lightly in bed before trying to get up, but became mortified to hear a groan of a grown man behind him, and even if he wanted to move he was being held down by his waist.

There was no need to look far for the culprit, a very sleepy Dongho yawned like it was the early morning for him. Looks like he had come home after all.

“Stay on your side prick.” Dongho complained about space. Minhyun flipped himself around to see the guy, or at least struggled to while pressed under the weight of Donghos arms over him.

“Why are you in a bed that is mine?” The tall man was so close to his friend, he could literally smell him. Mixed stench of beer and woman’s perfume from last night was still very much embedded in Donghos clothes and hair.

“I can’t stand sleeping on that couch for five minutes. It’s like its made of rocks or something.” Dongho felt like he was deserving of an actual mattress, even if that meant he had to share it with a friend.

“Does that have to involve you hugging me?” Minhyun pointed out the obvious, Donghos arms were tied around him under the sheets.

“Eh?” The big guy didn’t even realize that he was, it was something that always came to him as a natural response when sharing a bed with someone. He angrily pout, now refusing to let go out of spite, pretending it was intended.

“Mind your own business, how about that?” Dongho retaliated, hugging his friend even harder.

Minhyun didn’t hate it, but he began to smirk wide enough to make Dongho more likely to change his mind and flee any second. The jerk wanted to act tough for some reason by holding him.

“Kang,” Minhyun hummed after Dongho hadn’t said too much for almost a hot minute. “What is it?” The guy meant to sound mean.

Minhyun suspiciously chuckled, grinding at Donghos strong arms that hugged him under the duvet. “Can you maybe hug me a little harder?” He joked.

“Shut your stupid mouth, you turbo virgin.” Dongho took the threat seriously and caused the tall male to laugh. Minhyuns head fell back into the pillow and he shut his eyes to return to sleep. 

This guy was so annoying that even his laugh was like nails on a chalkboard, but Dongho had learned to somewhat tolerate it by now rather to just endure it. After staring at the sleeping tall male for a while, Dongho gave up and returned himself back into an awkward hug with the guy, positioning his thigh pressed to the side of Minhyuns leg.

Minhyun acted surprised to see him willingly cuddle. “Hey, since when did you get this comfortable?” He chuckled again, raising his head to look at the guy laying an ear near to his chest.

“Shut up and just appreciate it.” The shyness was loud in Donghos babyish voice, “We are friend anyways, or do you have a problem with that?” He tried to be tough.

It was quite evident that Dongho still felt a little bit of guilt for not being to pay Minhyun back for giving him a place to stay. Maybe this was his weird way of paying his dues, Minhyun assumed.

“I mean, a simple ‘thanks for letting me use your bed’ would suffice too.” Minhyun grinned again, raising his hand to pet the puppy cheek of Dongho beside him. His thumb moved against his roommates cheek, reaching to gently flick the mans ear piercing.

“Or— if you really want to repay me,” He teased him by bringing up that one promise that had temporarily faded from Donghos dense skull.

The warm hand on his cheek combined with Minhyuns venomous words made Dongho blank out, his eyes resembling big shiny marbles. In his head he had to calculate if he would even ever be able to repay it.

The silence coming from him was long enough for Minhyun to speak twice, “Hey, I am just messing with you.” Dongho nervously chuckled in response.

It was too late to admit that it had simply been just a jest by then. Now Dongho had began freaking out about how he was late to a class, using that as his excuse to flee from scene.

Aaron had woken up extremely early that day for what he was about to do, he wanted to tackle this tiny little thing that bothered him right at the start of the day, so that he wouldn’t have to be nervous about it the whole day.

Beside being anxious he was also now running late to his own arrangement. Aaron dashed into a flowery outdoor cafe, there already expecting him sat a grumpy faced woman who met his awkward smile with a glare.

Aaron had learned to recognize that judging stare from ten miles away, it was his girlfriend. 

“Hey, Raina.” He called her by her name, she didn’t even flinch to send a hi back. His girlfriend was reasonably upset because Aaron had decided to show up late for his own proposed outing – one she didn’t even feel like coming to already.

He quickly sat down to greet her, but she didn’t think to move her purse off the table first, because somehow she already knew what this sudden meeting was all about, so she just wanted to get it over with quickly.

Her boyfriend stared down trying to pull out apologetic smiles that wouldn’t work on her. “What is it, Kwak?” She scolded him for not talking any sooner.

Aaron nervously chuckled, he could tell that she was fuming and honestly she had all right to me upset. He wasn’t going to lie to her nor himself, Aaron had been a shitty boyfriend lately. For the past few days he had forgotten to text her or even call her, since a lot of other things had been on his mind for him. It took him a while to realize that he should have treated his girlfriend better.

At least she was over him already, her nails were freshly made right out of the shop and before this, she was probably returning to the salon later the same day to get her hair done too. All while Aaron looked like a total mess coming in here all sweaty and looking like he hadn’t shaven in five days, although considering his pathetic growth, it was probably way more then that.

“You’re breaking up with me right?” She put words into his mouth, but at least they were the right words. Aaron nodded with certainty. Although he was usually well versed in making up excuses, this time he was going to come off clean.

“You are right. I am sorry.” He bowed his head down as if he were bowing before the great king himself. 

He began to spew nonsense, “It has been something that has been tormenting me for days. At first I tried to deny it, then avoid it.”

While being subjected to listen, his girlfriend couldn’t help but to tilt her head and grimace in disbelief, Kwak Aaron was really doing this.

The man only spoke up louder, “But now I have finally figured myself out. There is someone else that I cant get out of my mind.”

“Already?” She mocked him, but it flew over his head. 

He wasn’t alone however, these days the woman had been thinking about dating literally anyone else in the world, but Aaron. And even if she died and was reborn, she still wouldn’t go out with this fraudulent guy again.

Aaron looked back down and his voice became low again, “I wouldn’t act on those feelings or go chase that person. But I feel that this still isn’t fair to you.” He added, in a voice that had gone tiny once more, “You deserve more.” 

His ex had to snort at the guy acting all poet and shit only right when they were breaking up. To her it seemed like, that he was saying this only to make himself not feel bad about it.

She mocked him, “And who would that be? That person you like so much.” Her arms had become crossed.

“I guess you do deserve to know.” Aaron tried to act tough, “I like my friend, Kang Dongho.”

After he had said it, it felt as if the sun had suddenly fallen back into the ground or something, and that is why the sound of crickets was the only thing that Aaron could pick up for almost a half minute straight.

“Kang?” It took a second for her to realize that he was talking about that same guy, a mutual friend of theirs. She began to stand up in disbelief. “Do you think this is a joke?”

“Eh?” Aaron didn’t understand the outburst, until she began to scold him. “If you were going to lie to me and make up dumb excuses then you should’ve at least come up with something a little bit more believable.” Raina took his story as a blatant lie.

“What? I wouldn’t lie to you.” Aaron got out of his chair to turn heels as she was already walking past him. “Have a good one Kwak!” The woman didn’t wish to look back.

Aaron couldn’t stop her from leaving, he had to plop back down into his chair and pout. “Fuck.” He hissed out loud, cursing that cone head shaped bastard who had caused all of this.

Dongho was totally peeking at Minhyun from behind the corner of his own textbook, the tall guy could see him do it each time, but even though their eyes met multiple times, Dongho just kept doing it hoping one time Minhyun wouldn’t catch him staring.

The shortest laid in bed which was the only piece of furniture in the whole apartment where his ass didn’t hurt from sitting on it, doing some light pretend book reading. Minhyun was facing him, sitting on the floor legs crossed and a laptop in his lap, actually studying.

At one point and after the n-th time that Dongho had secretly glanced over at his roommate, Minhyun finally snapped and asked him the question that Dongho was not brave enough to ask himself – “Do you need help with your homework?”

“Perhaps.” Dongho was coy about it, but his begging eyes could not conceal his inner desperation. Minhyun laughed at him, slapping his own laptop shut.

Dongho was as clever as a rock, his grades were just above average, but that was only because he would go study in the library of the university every other day just to escape the chaos and all the kids in his aunts home. Minhyun on the other hand was naturally smart and barely even studied for it.

The tallest bounced on the bed beside Dongho looking for ways to help him while still managing to annoy him with his constant smiling. All it took Minhyun was to simply scan the content of the books pages for a minute and he immediately started to explain it in simple to Dongho, like if he was a paid tutor. Then he asked his friend to recite everything in his own words, that way he could memorize it and remember everything at least until the test.

It came as a surprise that the tall jerk was more than his pretty face and was actually really smart too. Dongho felt even more envious of him now, if the bastard was straight like him then there would be no single girls in the hundred mile radius that would ever be interested in the penniless, dumb as fuck, Dongho over this prick.

This all reminded him how Minhyun had mentioned that he still doesn’t have an actual boyfriend, but he bet that the guy probably still went around. Until now, for some reason he had assumed that since Minhyun had a crush on him meant that he wouldn’t be seeing anyone else in the meanwhile.

Dongho physically shrugged from the thoughts realizing that they were actually bothering him for some odd reason.

The tallest looked over to Dongho who’s head had been turned away, his eyes landed on the mans tiny pink earlobe and his cool silver ear piercings. He promptly reached to pinch one of them to regain the students attention. Dongho yelped at the unexpected tug, instantly glaring at Minhyun for bullying him.

“You listening?” Minhyun laughed again realizing that the guy had been zoned out for the past minute, meaning everything he had said was lost and not heard by the other.

“What? Oh, yeah.” Dongho turned, frantically trying to find the exact line in the book where Minhyun might have left off.

Minhyun instead took it right out of his hands and closed it, “Enough for now, you are at your limit so there’s no point trying to squeeze more out of yourself.”

The shortest sighed in great relief, he swore that if he had to hear or read any more, then he would have snapped – put the text book into a furnace and fled into the woods to live a new life as a cave dwelling carnivore.

The tallest wanted to return to his own work, but a shaky voice was scared of him leaving just yet, “Minhyun,” Dongho attracted the eyes of his study friend, “How come you are so good at studying?”

“You calling me smart?” Minhyun chuckled. “Don’t let it get to your head, its inflated enough as is.” Dongho insulted him to make himself feel better.

“Hmm,” The tall man threw his head back to think and reminisce. After short pondering he returned to speak.

“Originally, I used to do bad in school so my parents hired a tutor for me, but when I kept getting bad grades regardless, instead of saying anything to me, all they did was fire the tutor and just hire a new one instead.”

“After the fourth tutor had already lost their job, I realized that I didn’t want to become an inconvenience to anyone, so I just studied really hard.” Minhyun explained that his motivation to study was plain and simple, to make lives of those around him easier.

Dongho hanged his head low as an apology for him even asking, but Minhyun wouldn’t let him chin down. He tilt the mans head back up with his index finger and grinned at him. The shortest instantly snort and backed away, acting like he hated being touched.

Minhyun laughed. He found out that Dongho was docile unless intimidated, just like a little house cat. Keeping him around was such a joy for now, although he had no clue what to do with the guy later once he eventually grows bored.

He cleared his throat all of a sudden, “By the way, the key code to the apartment—” 

Minhyun was finally giving Dongho the free range to leave and return whenever he pleased, the test period to see if Kang would steal and sell his TV was finally over. He trust him now.

“I changed it to your birthday.” Minhyun winked, “I have classes happening at different times, so I won’t be home this much anymore.”

Dongho nodded as his reply, if that was the case then he almost didn’t want to ever leave as long as Minhyun was home to help him with his reading assignments. It would be a crying shame.

“By the way, Hwang.” Dongho stopped the man again and forced himself to be brave enough to actually say words he had intended to say.

“You know any cool places around here?” Dongho innocently suggested, truth was that he was dying to sneak into the expensive celebrity populated clubs all around Minhyuns area, “My friends want to meet you again for whatever reason and they won’t stuff bugging me about it. I tried.” 

Dongho went to itch the back of his neck, eyes shot low. Minhyun ignored Donghos awkwardness, “Is that the same trio of weirdos from before?” The other man reluctantly nodded, “I wouldn’t be as generous to call them that.”

Minhyun laughed, “Its fine, they are nice. How come they want to hang out with me?” Dongho glared back up started to spill, “Well, Mingi is convinced we are faking it, and the other two—”

“Aaron knows, he told me the other night.” Minhyun cut in to mention, surprising his friend. “Oh? He didn’t mention it to me.” Dongho was confused. 

Minhyun tested the shortest with an evil smile, “He’s just trying to protect you.” Dongho snapped his chin up at Hwang, “From whom?” 

Minhyun didn’t have the time to point at the big bad wolf in the room, that Aaron had warned Dongho about – Hwang himself, before the short man had already corrected his response.

“You know what, sorry for not letting you know earlier. I hope he wasn’t weird about it.” Minhyuns snicker became just as awkward as Dongho had been and trailed off right at the end.

“Jonghyun is clueless for now. But I have yet to convince that bastard Choi. He knows my parents and would an absolute snitch.” Dongho spoke to himself and Minhyun found himself lovingly nodding to the guys every word, totally ignoring everything else in the world to view the way his cute pouty lips moved as he spoke.

“You might want to deal with being all stiff and awkward in front of me then.” Minhyun tilted his head as he made the cruellest smirk. 

“I am?” Dongho was genuinely shocked, he hadn’t noticed it himself already. Minhyun laughed, reaching to pat his friend on the head for being so clueless and cute. 

“Yup, not even my stellar acting can salvage the way you always manage to make us look like the most awkward looking, on the verge of divorce and in middle of a legal battle of who gets to keep the house, couple in the universe.” Minhyun removed his hand, checking it for any dandruff he might have gotten on his hands.

“Shit, that’s not good.” The shortest admit. If his aunt ever noticed any of what Minhyun was saying, he would be toast.

Dongho saw himself as someone who was usually confident, blunt and direct, not someone who should be scared to look his pretend boyfriend in the eyes. If what Minhyun was telling him any true, then he desperately wanted to get rid of this strange cause that he did not know the root of.

“You know what, lets act it out first before we meet with my friends.” He spoke in a boastful voice, suddenly acting confident. “Act what out?” Minhyun raised his brow in question.

“Yeah, you know – pretending to be intimate and stuff.” As soon as Donghos own words from his mouth had become hesitant, he pushed to rush out the rest, “We did this before!”

“Ah, that.” Minhyun didn’t think that Dongho would still remember that, them at the resort under the light of the fireworks.

The nod of understanding that Minhyun gave him was slow. “But, do you think it would actually help you?” He doubted the flawed tactic himself, but he didn’t want to outright point it out.

Dongho nod, he had just hugged Minhyun earlier and he didn’t feel gross and covered in ants back then, so this shouldn’t be any harder. 

Minhyun trusted him and sat slightly closer to Dongho, causing the other guy to crawl backwards in the same bed, shoving all the stacked papers out of the way with his sockless feet.

“Uwa! Scary!” Dongho was eyes wide once Minhyun had gotten real close to his face. 

The tallest stopped, “You told me to do this!” Minhyun whined at him for backing down already, now it was embarrassing for them both.

“J-just continue then.” Dongho stuttered, not realizing that Minhyun would go straight to kissing him. He couldn’t really back down now.

The other got to hover on top of him, arms held on either side of the man. The shortest gulped looking up at the handsome man above him and at the same time trying to not look away. Within seconds Dongho was intensively sweating. Why the hell was he being so nervous about this, Dongho demanded himself to know, why couldn’t he just man up and take it like a champ and not a sore loser that he was currently being.

Slowly Minhyuns arms around him became what supported Donghos back, as it had now partially left with the surface of the bed. He was still laying down in a slope neck on top of the pillows. Minhyun hovered over him lowering himself by an inch a second.

Dongho shut his eyes as soon as a foreign set of lips were just about to sink into his own. They hadn’t landed yet, but he could still feel the heat radiate from afar, slow breaths that weren’t his own felt like steam across his blushing skin.

“Wait! Wait!” Dongho suddenly yelled, right before his heart was about to burst from stress. His feet kicking at the other end of the bed. Minhyun pulled back to eye the guy, looking just as terrified as him.

“Can you just give me a hickey and that’s it?” Dongho suggested, “It will be obvious, so no one will ask questions.”

It took a moment for Minhyun to recover, he could understand why Dongho wasn’t ready to kiss him yet, but he still wanted to do it so much it hurt, especially after he had gotten so close to being able to finally embrace Kang. It felt like he had been cheated. 

“You really wanna do that?” Minhyun raised a brow, his sights judging Donghos scared neck. The short guy had no clue anymore, but it was still plausible, he supposed.

Minhyun had the expression of hurt all over his face. “Then just ask a girl to give you one.” He tried to sit up, but Dongho grabbed Minhyun with a grip so hard it felt like a slap. 

“You know I haven’t had a girl in ages all because of you.” Dongho had angrily gritted his teeth. “Take some responsibility, damnit.”

Minhyun remembered him saying that exact same line once before. Somehow everything was always his fault to Dongho, that guy never wished to admit his own guilt ever.

He squint his eyes to show his anger, but despite it, he then still proceeded to lean his face directly onto the right side of Donghos neck. His friend reacted by freezing still, making a promise to himself to not be a coward twice.

The short man did a small squeal, feeling his head being held up by a hand and not a pillow anymore. Then he felt a hot breath, soon replaced by something even hotter. His friends wet tongue travelled in a soft slow circle scouting and tasting the skin at first before anything else. At that point Dongho had winced his eyes shut trying not to imagine how he looked like right now, being licked by another man.

Minhyun folded his lips above the same wet skin and pressed a kiss there that would serve as his mark. Dongho woke up again to yelp, “Ah! Don’t bite!”

The tallest pulled his head out of the pit that was Donghos neck, his pointy chin about to stab the guy in the face for interrupting him for the second time today after begging him to do this first.

“I am not even biting!” Minhyun spoke against Donghos ticklish skin. He then returned to his task, teeth lightly scraping over the teased skin, that was exactly what the other man had been talking about. Dongho yelled again, “You are biting you bastard!”

“Then how do you want me to do this?” Minhyun rant at the other man. 

Now Minhyun saw why Donghos hook-ups probably kept ditching him after only one night – the guy was such a cry-baby it was unreal.

“It just hurts a lot.” Dongho winced, arching his chin up as if he were in aching pain. Minhyun stared at the attractive display that somehow made him calm, he promised to himself to be the most delicate.

He lowered back into the neck and began to make rounds of weak bites, then replacing the sore marks he had created with kisses and numbing cold air from his nostrils. Gradually a spot had formed where the skin was red and irritated more than anything rather than resembling a potential hickey. But somehow the red smear still looked pretty to Hwang when it was decorating Donghos tan skin, especially knowing that he was the one who had made it. He returned to it to try and fix it.

After a while, Donghos neck had become too painful every time Minhyun sucked there he couldn’t help, but to let out tiny cries. The heat of Minhyuns chin pressed up upon his neck was the second biggest distraction, being so intimate with another guy made him want to curl up and hide. But instead of that, his arms had become glued to Minhyuns shoulders like claws.

He was out of breath, without it his reddened eyes began to blur and his mind had become a pink mush.

“Minhyun?” He tried to warn the other, but his voice of alarm came out sounding more like a pleased mewl. Maybe that’s why right then Hwang kept going, believing he was doing the right thing.

He part his lips to the sky to steal air into his lungs. His exhales were short and abrupt, they sounded like moans or yelps.

The man shot his knee up to hit Minhyun with it that way he would know to get off already, and when he did Dongho was left only with a burning feeling on his neck, one that was only being soothed by the layer of cooled droll covering it.

Minhyun looked at his face for the first time, his droopy eyelids and parted mouth. Everything in him screamed to kiss the guy, but without a permission he just sat there on his knees and watched Kang wither like a dying flower.

Dongho rolled his eyes, painfully looking into the distance. “Go ahead, do what you want.” He spoke out of nowhere, recognizing the hungry look on the face of the other and knowing how there was nothing he could do about it. 

Without question, without any morals, Minhyun gladly took over. He hurried and angled his chin into a position for the deepest kiss, practically swallowing the last of air out of Donghos lungs through their wide parted lips.

In the beginning, the guy was naive enough to think that this would help him get over his anxiety of pretending to be a real thing with this guy, but it didn’t help, instead it probably only made things worse. Instead of pushing away like before, Dongho actually clung his hands at Minhyuns shoulders and tilted his chin up to reach him even more.

Dongho gradually became more troubled overtime, it was hard for him to keep up, yet he was unable to tell his body to pull back not even for a second. Minhyun had blanked out too, but he didn’t push ahead, he made sure to go at the exact same pace that the other man had initiated even if it was hard for him to do so.

Minhyun kept up for another minute more up until Dongho used what little energy he had to just barely lift Minhyun away from him, “Enough—hh, enough.” He yelped.

The helpless, weakened voice of that man was making Minhyun to almost want to keep going. “It is too much?” He instantly paused, heated lips motionless yet still touching skin.

“No more.” A begging voice confirmed, “I can’t take anymore, p-please.” 

The mans chest was raising and falling and he was trying to catch his breath so loudly it sounded like a gush of wind was passing through the room. He was beat. Minhyun had stopped, but not before making a snarky comment about it first, “For a guy who goes to gym you sure run out of energy quick?”

Then as soon as he departed from holding the mans body, at that point it had become so limp that it literally slid from Minhyuns grasp. The tallest eyed what his friend had become – a red and a panting hot mess. Dongho probably had no idea about the type of face he was making.

Minhyun pretended to cough and made himself look away from the scene of the crash. 

“You need to catch your breath for a minute?” He tried to act as casual as a guy could be. However, right now Dongho couldn’t process even as little as that in his head, Minhyuns question had sounded like word soup to him.

As much as he wanted to, Dongho didn’t stay laying down forever, after a minute he forced himself off the bed. Minhyun helped him sit. Dongho even tried to speak, but his mouth now only existed for labored breathing.

He looked at the face he had just kissed all scared and wide eyed, then he wiped his face with one hand. “You gonna live?” Minhyun poked fun of his state.

“Remind me to not give in to something like this the next time.” Dongho choked out, now trying to touch the hickey to see if it was even worth it all.

He hissed after his palm had merely grazed it. Only now that idea seemed stupid to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey raina of after school have a nice day


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi this chapter was too long so i split it into two and i will upload the rest as a seperate chapter later/tommorow-ish? but dont quote me on that. this is kind of a filler chapter i guess

Recently Dongho practiced by imagining that the gym mat he was beating up was Minhyun. Nobody else inside of the gym seemed to notice how much the guy was sweating by kicking that thing poor, because the loud groans of others filling the hall were luckily louder than his.

Yet soon people started to scatter, Dongho had little time before he became completely alone in the martial arts room, practicing his self defence against an imaginary tall and lanky attacker by pinning them down by the back of the neck.

Only his lone loud yell populated the now hallow empty hall once everyone else was gone and the lights in the room were reached only halfway across it. Aaron had walked in on Dongho right as the man had collapsed powerless and exhausted on the floor. 

A strong maternal instinct took hold of Aarons feet and bought him running and on his knees up to the napping Dongho. The other man opened his eyes once there was something blocking the light shining from above ceiling – Aarons ginormous noggin was in the way. 

“You okay there, mate?” Aaron worried for nothing, Dongho snapped his top half up quick like a tiger.

“Oh, Aaron? You actually came after all.” Dongho chuckled reading the regret on Aarons face. “Well, duh?” The shortest scoffed.

Truth was, Aaron would rather die than to come here, but for who knows for what stupid reason he had still done it regardless.

“Why are you not in your gym clothes?” Dongho scanned his friend up and down, already suspecting that Aaron was originally planning on skipping again. He was certainly right.

“I forgot.” Aaron creepily smiled. 

“Well then, should we warm up first?” Dongho began to sit up. “W-warm up?” The short one did not instantly understand what he meant by that.

“Yeah. We should always warm up before any practice.” Dongho repeated.

Aaron shrug whilst trying to get his head out of the gutter first. “Let’s just spar without warming up, I don’t need it.” 

Dongho had to take another glance at the teeny-tiny man, who looked like he would break apart in one quick blow, “Are you sure?” Aaron nodded.

He began standing up to take a defensive stance in front of his friend. Dongho hopped to his feet too to be facing him and was waiting for Aaron to tackle him first. So the shortest hopped from one foot to the other trying to get himself ready for a tussle, even though he was clearly unprepared and scared shitless in front of his giant friend who could end his life with a single push. He regretted this so much, yet he tried his hardest not to look like an idiot in front of his friend.

Aaron furrowed his thick brows into one angry line, channelling all literally of his inner body strength to his arm that had raised against Dongho for a strike.

He gasped. His friend had already blocked his wrist in flight and with his full body mass Dongho would then pull back on Aarons locked arm, ultimately forcing the shorter man to be subdued onto the floor mat under him. Aaron hit ground first on his knees. 

Dongho took a hold of Aarons hurting arm and locked it behind his own back, making him fall cheek flat on the floor while his hips still stood in the air supported by his knees. Dongho ensured his friend could not break out of that hold by holding down the back of his neck just as he had practiced. To Aaron, it all happened in just a flash.

The two men pant, Dongho still held Aaron pinned for a brief moment giving the chance for his friend to try and break out of it himself. Yet Aaron wasn’t moving, he was absolutely beat from that one instance even if the mat had made the landing soft.

“You alright?” Donghos husky, labored voice called from right behind Aaron. The short boy froze in motion for the second time when realizing how closely the two bodies were positioned.

“Yeah? Yeah.” Aaron had no clue if he was alright. His heart was pumping out of place now. He could feel Donghos warm breath pool on the back of his neck as if it was right there.

Donghos body was cupping the back of his entire frame, his torso was leaning over the back of Aarons spine, and the poor ass of the same dumb bloke was trapped up against the press of Donghos thighs. He couldn’t move without being forced to grind up against him, in that moment that was all he could think about – trying not to purposely grind into his best friend like some kind of a perverted creep.

“You see how easily I blocked you there?” Dongho tried to explain his self defence, but everything he said after that flew right past the ears of Aaron, who was blanked out. “Let me show to you how I did it so you can counter it next round.” Dongho added. 

That is when Aaron had finally realized that his friend was talking to him. Aaron knew he couldn’t take another round if it meant that he had to sit on his knees under the weight of the sweaty and attractive panting mass that was Dongho. 

“Good lord, I am so fucked.” Aaron whimpered just as his friend rolled off of him. Dongho had not heard him. 

“Stand up, lets reverse our roles.” Dongho ordered the little guy who had to hold the back of his spine like an old man, as he slowly stood up for a tutorial rematch.

“You sure you okay?” Dongho noticed his beaten friend arch and whine. “Yeah, I am fine. I just haven’t done this in a while, you know?” Aaron blamed himself.

“Right.” Dongho slowly extended his arm the same way Aaron had at him before, letting the other man grab it. He instructed from there, the angle and position in which his friend should follow to bring Dongho to the ground instead of him.

Aaron was clumsy, but he lust for revenge. Without Dongho expecting him to suddenly go fast, Aaron did the exact steps he had been told and put Dongho in his own previous position pinning him to the ground.

Dongho hit the floor mat with a thud, followed by a groan that sounded more or less like a cry. Aaron got scared fearing he had hurt him at first, but Dongho was fine, he just had softer skin. There was nothing to worry about.

“Woah, you got it on your first try!” Dongho stopped wincing to cheer while Aaron held him down, not releasing the strength from his muscles to let Dongho leave the position.

Aaron didn’t say a thing as if his brain had instantly shut down and his eyes had gone absolutely large looking down at Donghos great shoulders pressed helpless into the mat, his back squished up against the front of Aarons lap. Even his neck was glistening, glimmering with wet, soaking the hem of the outfit that had been pulled out of the way showcasing the spine that was ghosting up from his skin, all of it shiny and sweaty. 

His back raised in low waves as Dongho breathed in and out of his panting lungs, Aaron watched it like he was obsessed. “Fuck.” The shortest hissed, realizing that all of his muscles had instantly petrified solid.

The victim tried to wiggle out, but couldn’t until he had to ask. “Uh, Aaron?” He turned his head trying to look back.

Donghos eyes frightened the other. As soon as Aaron let go, he fell back and landed right off the mat hitting his tailbone on the hard wooden floor. Dongho laughed in response to his pained yell, wiping his own sweat collecting at his hairline which he had never noticed.

“I think I’ve already had enough for the day.” Aaron, still staring at his very attractive friend, had become so stressed he felt like he might vomit any second.

“Eh? But we never even had a rematch.” Dongho watched his friend pick up his bones from the floor. “We just did. That totally count.” Aaron rushed to get his words out so he could dart the fuck out of here before he says or does something weird.

“Huh?” Dongho was clueless. “T-take care?” His last word was unheard by Aaron who had run out so quickly, leaving his friend alone in the gym again.

Since Dongho now lived in a high-rise that oversaw a popular downtown district, his eyes were always glued to the scary high windows, because the sight of the breath-taking city glowing at night was so different and new to him. It was like a living, moving sea of glowing light into the distance.

Dongho peeled himself off the large glass window of the apartment buildings lobby, just as his elevator on the way down had finally arrived. He stepped in, but right before the door had the chance to close he was joined by someone.

Dongho stared down a woman who he recognized as a TV celebrity. She lived on the same floor as Minhyun, it seemed like even the people living in the surrounding apartments were high class.

That woman was dressed fancy like she was going out for a party or a club around the area. Dongho averted his eyes and shrug, it reminded him how ever since he had crashed at Minhyuns house, he had always wanted to sneak into one of these luxurious district pubs that the people from around here frequented, and possibly meet the single famous people with heaps of cash he could bribe with his good looks.

The woman walked away before Dongho could even gape his mouth open to remember to always ask for an autograph or a picture. Mingi was probably going to kill him now for not doing it, that kid was obsessed with idols and such.

With the money he had borrowed from Minhyun, Dongho was about to go out to a fancy rich people club tonight and meet his gaggle of dumb friends there, so they could for one night party like they were rich.

He stood near the entrance of it on his phone waiting for a text from his friends he was supposed to meet outside. The little bastard Choi texted him shortly after, he told that he had already somehow made it inside.

“How the hell did you get in?” Dongho texted back, tree dots danced at the bottom of his screen until newer message had loaded in. “I snuck past the guards, easy!” His friend boasted over text. 

That jerk was out of his mind. Dongho looked up to glance at the security, they were so big and scary, not even he himself could size up to them.

As soon as Dongho walked in to find his friends inside, the athmostfare was a lot different than what it would be like at any normal club. This was totally Minhyuns turf – it was populated by bunch of rich kids, as well as people pretending to be rich. People were shamelessly hitting on older guests at the bar tables in hopes to secure the bag. He didn’t blame them, that was his plan for the night too.

Flashing lights and loud music made Dongho move up quickly, it wasn’t long until someone eventually flocked to him, Dongho recognized some familiar faces.

“Mingi!” Dongho greeted. Jonghyun stood by his side, handing onto his taller friend by the elbow.

Mingi blend in with the rich folk here well, he was wearing his best, flashiest outfit which had its every single item branded with a designer logo. No wonder why Mingi has always been complaining about being out of money, right now he was literally wearing his entire lifesavings.

Jonghyun was dressed in a way he wouldn’t normally dress, thus he looked almost like an entirely different person. Mingi was probably the one that had dolled him up to look like a model for tonight. Dongho gave the guy a nod.

However, his grin quickly changed when he had noticed how either Aaron had come in wearing his invisibility cloak or he just straight up wasn’t here. He point his eyes at the pair to ask, “Where is Kwak?”

“Where is Minhyun?” Mingi mocked Donghos high pitched voice. After all, Dongho had promised that they would all hang out together, but instead he came alone.

Originally Kang had indeed intended to bring Hwang out for a fake date in front of his friends, but had cancelled last minute. Minhyun made him feel weird now, yet not weird like in a bad way. However he couldn’t describe it – he was nervous, easily flustered and every sentence he said ended with a stutter in front of that guy recently.

Because of that, he felt needed to cool his mind, hang out with his boys for a bit and pick up some nice girl for the night. That would surely help him recover from whatever he was going through.

“He’s busy.” Dongho lied. Mingi made a small laugh, “I already checked his online profile, he just posted about how much he misses you alone at home.”

“How typical. That bastard.” Dongho hissed under his breath. Minhyun was probably rolling in his bed dying of laughter knowing that Kangs friends would read it and make fun of him.

Jonghyun hated seeing his friends picking a fight, from his point of view, Mingi and Dongho were always nice and supportive of one another, but these days Choi was always on his ass for some reason.

“Aaron said he had a stomach-ache, so he couldn’t come.” Jonghyun answered to Donghos old question. 

Mingi chimed in to support it, or rather yelled just to get his voice to be heard over the sudden drop of the music playing in the background. “He said that his suppositories wouldn’t absorb or something.” He yelled.

“That sucks.” Dongho noted while not actually hearing a word the other youth had said.

After it was established who they were missing. The trio moved on to dancing or interacting with strangers. Although Dongho couldn’t really meet anyone right now since he had to keep playing along and pretending that he was in a relationship. Soon enough he knew he had to ditch these guys, if he ever wanted to get a chance of actually getting laid tonight.

The two friends were acting wobbly and dizzy already from ordering every drink on the food menu they could with money borrowed from Kang, so believing that perhaps they wouldn’t notice if Dongho snuck to the other floor of the club, that is what he did.

It wasn’t long till someone had already flocked to his side as soon as he was alone inviting the guy for a dance. Dongho was too shy to agree to it, he moved further off to the side to begin flirting with the same person by the seat area.

The woman he spoke to had long blonde hair, odd coloured contact lenses that made her eyes look more like cats eyes – Pale from head to toe, the only accent that stood out was how red her lips were. She said her name was Rena, but Dongho doubt if that was even her real name.

Dongho became too infatuated with his one time fling to notice anything else happening around him. He had accepted only one drink from the lady, but the crowd behind them became all blurry, putting only the pretty stranger in the centre of his vision.

In middle of talking, the woman touched his hand, it wasn’t anything notable and normally he wouldn’t mind it, but for some reason he flinched, and then everything around him came back into focus. The horrible music, the waves of people – it made him sick.

The woman saw his concerned look and narrowed her eyes. “You alright there?” She spoke. Dongho shook his head to fix his brain. He was thinking about Minhyun again.

Just why did that jerk have to appear in his mind in the wrong times. He was trying to hit on this girl, but dirty images of Minhyun that his brain had memorized kept appearing to him. Not right now, Dongho tried to shoo them away.

Dongho reassured his date with a kind smile. Doing his best to keep his mind on her no matter how intrusive his intrusive thoughts were getting, especially after that one sip.

In the background of the tremors of endless music, Dongho continued to try and clumsily flirt with the woman until she caught him off guard when she began pulling him through the crowd without telling him where to, he followed. To his shock and horror, she went to steal a seat at a table with half a dozen other people, including Kangs very own friends who had found fun by themselves already.

“Hey Kang!” Jonghyun called out, waving from afar and as soon as his friend stepped closer, asking him where had he been.

Dongho didn’t have a chance to flee, he sat down with everyone and pretended that he had never met the woman before while his friends were staring. Mingi stayed silent to observe after seeing those two arrive hand in hand.

From there Dongho only got more nervous, sitting silent and twiddling the thumbs in his lap out of guilt, while the woman had seemingly forgotten about him and instead chat with her own friends.

Eventually someone had to ask about the guy who she had bought in, that is when she turned back to him and stared straight at Dongho, no longer smiling. She was static and unmoved by him. 

“Is something wrong?” Dongho grew impatient of her odd silence. “Not exactly, just thinking about something.” She spoke, looking directly at his face as if she was bothered by it, but it was too fascinating for her to look away.

“Like what?” The nervous male then saw the woman take away the glass he had been given and finish the drink for him. Seeing her change so quickly, he concluded that these wealthy district ladies were truly scary.

She sat the glass down neat and narrow on the table, her eye contact with the man was never broken. “Aren’t you Minhyuns boyfriend?” She spoke, watching the man pop his eyes.

Mingi was the first one at the table to start deliciously grinning at his dumbass friend about to be exposed. Dongho almost bit his own lip, “Wait a damn minute, you know Hwang?”

She nodded, “Very much so, he often tours here.” Dongho should have known and kept an eye out before flirting with strangers, as soon as the woman had seen him enter by himself, she immediately approached him with the intent to reveal him.

“So since we know him, naturally we already know about you too.” She happily announced, confusing the man. “Does he really talk about me?” Dongho had never even imagined it.

The woman snickered, “You kidding? You should know the best that Minhyun never shuts up.”

At this point Dongho realized that she in fact wasn’t angry, rather than that she acted like meeting Dongho this way wasn’t anything big. She soon revealed why, “I was going to let you know that Minhyun has been cheating on you, but looks like the two of you are in the same boat.”

The woman acted fascinated by the odd couple. “He has been– cheating on me?” Dongho repeated her exact words, then followed up with a gulp. 

It wasn’t like the two men were actually dating one another, plus Dongho would hate to restrict Minhyuns love life just because of their foolish plan. But it was still weird to hear that the guy he knew already had other people on the side.

Dongho lowered his head. He thought that him and Minhyun were good friends, then how come the guy never told him.

“Mhm.” The woman nodded her chin like a wand, pointing to the other guys present at the club. They were all tall, with sculpted model like bodies and facial features that would land them on covers of the magazines.

After seeing them Dongho shot his head down low once more, suddenly feeling inferior to everyone else, despite originally walking in here as the most confident guy on earth.

“What are you two really?” Rena pulled her ear closer, leaning across the table to hear what Dongho would have to say. The short male couldn’t say a word, because he felt that anything he said could show his own fraud if it didn’t match the same lies Minhyun had told these people.

“I need to call him to ask.” Dongho suddenly announced, getting up from the table to walk towards where the least crowd was.

It shocked everyone. They turned to Jonghyun and Mingi, whispering to them and asking what the hell was that guys deal. No one could believe that the notorious playboy Hwang had began dating, let alone with that awkward guy whom they had just met.

The woman kept her eyes on him, watching like a hawk. “Be back soon!” She warned him, while her friends shared whispers around her.

His escape lead him into a bathroom, where he occupied a stall with the phone clutched in his hand. He couldn’t leave or sneak out now, it would be weird and obvious. Dongho was scared shitless to walk back out that door and face Minhyuns friends who would make him give answers to their questions, which wouldn’t match with the fake stories Hwang had told them.

He sat there trying to think up an escape, while waiting for that tall bastard to text him back in dire times.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes

Dongho knocked on his own head as punishment, after forcing himself to text Minhyun to come to his rescue or make something up that could get them both out of this mess. Minhyun wasn’t too worried in his replies, according to him he didn’t mind if they were caught as only one of them would be facing repercussions for it.

That bastard – if only not for the laws and rules of this country, Dongho would have dealt with him already.

After all updates of Minhyun being on his way to Dongho flat lined, Kang quickly learned to give up, gripping the frame of his phone like it was the neck of Minhyun.

He sat there for minutes trying to calm down before either figuring out a way to leave this place without getting caught, or just sit here up until the entire stall gets depleted of oxygen.

Doon there was a sudden knock on the door of his stall, Dongho gritted his teeth trying to remain silent and not give away that it was him in the stall. He even raised his feet so they couldn’t be seen from underneath the gap of the door.

“Psst, It’s me idiot.” An annoying voice very much resembling Minhyuns spoke from the other side.

Dongho had never been so glad in his life to have heard it, literally. He unlocked the door and instead of stepping out, he pulled Minhyun inside of his little safe space with him, hugging him. The stall door locked behind them.

Minhyun was surprised Dongho would even hug him after all of those threatening texts. Usually the guy wasn’t this wanton, so it came as a shock, but then Minhyun noticed that Donghos breath reeked of booze, which explained just a few things.

“You came!” Dongho almost cried, gripping his fingernails into the back of Minhyuns overcoat.

“Yeah, we all make mistakes.” Minhyun tried to pull away from the big guy, but it was futile as the stall was too small to allow them both to stand separately.

Minhyun acknowledged that there must be something really special about Dongho considering the way he always kept coming over to save his ass from trouble again and again. However when he gazed down at the man and his big beady puppy eyes and his dumb confused smile, he remembered why. Dongho was his favourite thing.

“Alright, phew.” Dongho finally started to turn gears in his head.

“Now how the hell are the two of us going to get out of this place?” Dongho stared up at his saviour, explaining to him how there were bad people outside who probably had eyes fixed on the bathroom exit door. So they had also had probably seen Minhyun running in as well.

“Leave – why? Instead we should go meet everyone, so I could show you off!” Minhyun casually suggested.

Dongho instantly spawned a frown. What did that jerk mean by show off, as if he were some kind of a trophy.

“You have no choice if you ever want to fix the mess you made.” Minhyun lowered his voice to a whisper, “Don’t you realize how weird this looks? They probably don’t believe were dating anymore.”

Dongho vent a little louder than only a whisper. “Then why did you even tell them that we’re actually dating in the first place? Well, shit.”

“Did you want me to tell them that we are fake? These people are all snitches.” Minhyun laughed as quietly as his vocal cords would allow him to.

It was hard to agree with Minhyun, but Dongho still did. He sulked and was against standing trial in front of Minhyuns fake friends as they monitor their each and every interaction.

After glancing down in silence for a bit, Dongho steered his face back up with the same beady doe eyes from before. “Gosh, we gotta act like a couple too?” He asked, earning a quick nod from the other.

The two stood there for a while, mentally preparing themselves to act this out all over again. While doing so, something else managed to peak Minhyuns interest.

“How come you hid this?” Minhyun noticed how Dongho was wearing a high collar to hide his hickeys. Dongho shot his eyes away in guilt, a second later Minhyuns hand grazed it and he hissed in pain, flinching it away.

“Why would I want to leave it in plain view, you bastard?” Dongho disagreed. “Isn’t that what you wanted?” His confused friend fluttered his pretty lashes.

“I guess, but—” Dongho cut himself short. “Can’t pick up anyone tonight with that stuck to your neck?” Minhyun chuckled like he had figured it out.

“No, that is not it. Well, yes – partially.” Dongho was started to get lost within his own rambling, but it ended shortly, as soon as Minhyuns hand raised again to brush against the neck of the man hidden behind cloth of a high collar.

Dongho let his bottom lip hang and tremble as his worried eyes followed the movement of Minhyuns hand cautiously pull down the fabric for a look. The bruise was deep red and even purple, Minhyun didn’t remember doing all that. He felt bad.

He replaced the hand with his face, suddenly having hugged Dongho. His lips kissed on top of the collar that hid the mans neck again, nuzzled against it. Dongho stood there all wide eyed until fear of being hurt made him squeeze his eyes shut again.

Slowly Minhyun raised his breath to air against the ear of his pretend boyfriend, but he did it slowly enough to give time for Dongho to say no to it. He didn’t. Dongho wasn’t against it, yet he still appeared to be nervous, “But there are strangers that will watch us?”

“We did this before already, under the fireworks, remember?” His voice was low and deep right into the trembling shell of an ear.

Dongho acted grumpy and spoke under his pout lip, “It was too dark for people to see.”

Because Dongho was being hesitant Minhyun decided to gave up on the plan, and drew distance between the two men. But Dongho instantly panicked, grabbing onto his forearm.

“I’ll do it!” Minhyuns face had barely missed the spray of mist that came from Donghos loud, yelling throat directly pointed in his face. He had no clue why Dongho had yelled just now, or why was he being so desperate.

Two seconds later a smirk spread across Minhyuns face, the reason why Dongho was so hesitant and nervous about it would become evident moments later, as his cheeks began to red.

“I just need to get ready bit first, alright?” Dongho admitted, suddenly speaking quietly and with a flustered groan present in his voice.

After understanding what the situation was Minhyun bent his knees in preparation. Dongho flashed his angry teeth at him, and only after getting over a hurt feelings he extended his neck to give the idea of kissing Minhyun a test run.

Donghos lips were awkward and stiff as always, his eyes hinged shut as if he was waiting for a needle to pierce him. But the only sting came in the form of Minhyun parting his mouth for him and taking over. Their tongues slicked over one another hot and sweet, in slow paused rounds. Overtime Dongho became relaxed, his tensed face had melted into calmness.

This definitely had to be the filthiest place for doing something like this, if only Dongho had agreed of doing it with Minhyun at home he wouldn’t need to.

The tallest man noticed how Donghos hands were holding onto the hem of his arm sleeve, as if Dongho knew that he should hold Minhyuns hand right, but wasn’t brave enough to do it. His hand was in fact shaking.

Minhyun raised his own hand to press it into Donghos cheek to deepen the silent kiss. He stepped his foot even closer to him and as gently as he could, rest Donghos back against the wall, but it still somehow hit against it with a small thud.

The shorter man didn’t mind it, or rather he hadn’t noticed a change, his mouth only became wider to the kiss and his chest raised bigger up against Minhyuns hallow ribcage. In a short moment, Minhyun parted from him, panting in relief at being able to breathe away from Dongho again.

Minhyun felt evil every time he got to steal a kiss from Dongho this way, but perhaps the fact that he kept doing it meant that he really was evil.

“Holy shit.” Dongho pant. “Are you ready now or should we keep practicing until they close?” Minhyun joked, earning an elbow from Dongho.

“Jackass, just get me out of here sooner.” An annoyed whine was the response to that.

The man acted grumpy to conceal the fact that his heartbeat had gone haywire during the ordeal. He didn’t want for Minhyun to know that, he didn’t want to give the guy that much power.

The crowd at the table had grown in size, enough so that some sat on the laps of others. Amongst them Mingi looked like he was enjoying this the most, and judging by that idiotic grin he had on his face, he probably had been shit talking Dongho behind his back for a while.

Donghos eyes met with Jonghyun, but the timid guy purposely turned away. Jonghyun looked uncomfortable, like he too had lost the faith in Donghos tale after hearing stories spread around the table. This was bad.

The woman with the blonde hair snapped her brightly coloured fingernails at the two men inviting them to join. Minhyun shared the same smirk that she had, it looked so unfriendly and fake. Dongho sat down first, and then Minhyun sat on the edge of his thigh, before Dongho shook him off to sit beside him properly.

People noticed and began to mock him, “This guy is funny, where did you find him?” Another woman pointed at Dongho, her finger swaying and speech sounding very much slurred.

While the question remained unanswered for long seconds. Rena went on to dart her eyes in between the two lovebirds, one acting more nervous than the other.

Someone passed Dongho a glass, before Minhyun could deny it to him, he quickly stole it and gulped it all down. He had no idea what it was, but it was strong and that is all what he needed right now.

Minhyun frowned at him, taking the glass away from his lips as soon as he could, but Dongho chased even the last drop.

“So, I take it you two still see other people while dating one another, is that right?” The blonde woman acted intrigued.

Dongho didn’t like how that sounded, he wasn’t some two-timer so he had instantly opened his mouth to protest before Minhyun purposely cut him off.

“Yeah. It’s exactly like that.” Minhyun sneered his wide smile from ear to ear.

“I like him, but we aren’t tied to one another like that just yet.” He turned to face his boyfriend expecting the guy to give in and agree. Dongho was so stiff it was like he could not speak.

Mingis eyes bounced back and forth, he worried for Dongho, but honestly just watching this was so fun. As always he stayed silent and just enjoyed the show.

“Oh, is that so?” Rena formed a circle with her lips, placing a pondering finger that tapped underneath her chin.

Dongho didn’t look at Minhyun anymore, he stared down at his own lap where his nervous hands fiddled. “No its not.”

He didn’t want to go with that story, he believed that it made him look like a total player, even thought this was all fake anyways, he still didn’t want that on his record.

The people surrounding the table let out a surprised, “Huh?”

The tallest flinched his eyes to his side where Dongho sat in fear of what the dumb bastard was going to say next. He felt like a lawyer of someone who wasn’t using his right to remain silent and by doing so was jeopardizing his own case.

“I like Minhyun. Only him.” Dongho kept his face downed, but his eyes were drifting in pointless laps from left to right. His fingernails clicked together as he anxiously plucked them in his lap.

Minhyun suddenly went all silent, even though Dongho was the biggest moron he had even come across, his heart still pound against his chest somehow moved by his words.

The woman smirked, the intrigue of conflicting accounts lead her to wanting to quiz the talkative Dongho a little bit more.

“Then what was that bit from earlier?” She referred to before, when Dongho had unknowingly hit on her. It made the man stall, but after two seconds he already had an excuse up.

“I– I wanted to make him jealous.” Dongho lied by pointing his finger at him as if there was more than one Minhyun sitting at this table. A laugh broke directly from Minhyuns mouth – he wished that tale was true.

“It certainly worked.” The tallest spoke to him. “Eh?” Dongho acted surprised, even more so as Minhyuns face quickly closed in on him.

Dongho didn’t have a second spare to react before the tall bastard had kissed him right in front of his friends. It was a lot less than what they did back in that filthy stall, but Dongho reacted the same. His face changed expressions from surprised to wasted, suddenly Dongho didn’t care that people were watching, and neither did he care who he was kissing. Arm raising to hold Minhyun by the side of his neck.

His two best friends just sat there and were forced to watch it, their eyes shrank to nothing but dots before the affectionate display. These two were seriously confused now.

Just when it was about to get good Minhyun fled from Donghos lips to go back to talking with his friends. After seeing what they had seen, everyone decided that they had enough proof that the two were very much in love with one another.

The shortest was left to his own devices, dealing with the weird feelings of aftermath. He became slow and dazed while the nauseating voices of strangers in the club continued to talk over him for long minutes.

Dongho didn’t know how he felt about this all – this false sense of reality that was being built around him finally had gotten him mixed up. Dongho was slowly starting to confuse what was real or not. That thin line of in-between was starting to become blurry. Everyone around Dongho was calling Minhyun his boyfriend, and by now maybe he was.

He clawed his hand at Minhyuns arm to gain his attention. Yet the guy would not listen, too busy chatting with others. Dongho leaned in to hug his supposed boyfriend, but couldn’t reach him. Instead his nose clumsily fell into Minhyuns neck and just stayed there where it was warm and smelled nice.

All this time Minhyun had heard and felt Dongho on him. He finally gently pushed his friend away, whispering to him so that no one else would hear it.

“Hey, you are drunk, so you might not know what you are doing right now.” Minhyun secretly scolded his friend.

Jonghyun had overheard and instantly turned away from the pair coming back to the conclusion that the two were in fact legit. There was too much proof for his eyes to witness.

“How dare you? I am not drunk!” Dongho swore his whole life on it, pounding his fist at his chest to show off how spry he was. It was embarrassing for the tallest, he didn’t want his fake friends to think bad things of Dongho when he acted this way.

Minhyun further elbowed him away, leaning forwards at the table to move all of the glasses of liquid in sight aside and out of the child’s reach.

“I’ve already learned my lesson the last time you told me that.” He spoke.

Dongho almost cried at the sight of the free drinks being moved, “Hey come on, this time it was only just a sip dude.” He tried to prove how totally sober he was.

Minhyuns whispering became quick and angry, “The last time you only had a sip, you almost puked in my car.” Dongho whined, “That was because I had car motion sickness!”

The other snapped back, earning a secret glance from a friend beside him who had just overheard, “How come you didn’t have one going there?”

“That’s because I sat in the front seat, looking forward, out the window, took deep breaths and tried not to yawn.” Dongho had raised his voice loud enough for it not to be a whisper anymore.

The surrounding chatter was suddenly interrupted by their now very loud, audible voices bickering with one another. A nameless woman at the table worried for them, “Are you guys actually fighting?”

Dongho looked at her while pointing at the guy beside him, “I am about to break up with this fucking asshole. This absolute bully.” Minhyun suddenly couldn’t hold his smile for any longer and began to giggle.

“See? You see that? A bully.” Offended by his happiness, Dongho already readied his fists to fight him – all three of him.

He blinked his sullen eyes open and closed trying to understand why had that prick multiplied in his vision, as well as why the room he was in was suddenly leaning sideways.

Minhyun now offered to take him home. Dongho angrily agreed, giving up because he had easily become outnumbered up against all of the Minhyuns.

A lot from the past few hours seemed more like a lucid dream to Dongho. He woke up in a bed that smelled like Minhyun, his mouth wide open over a pillow. It was still dark outside the windows, he became upset realizing that the nap he took had only lasted for about merely over thirty minutes.

The shower silently hummed in the background, the only light that ever reached bed came from the gap under the bathroom door. Dongho didn’t have to roll around in bed to know that Minhyun was currently occupying it.

Yet he still tried to turn around because after laying in such an uncomfortable position for so long his spine hurt too bad. He blamed Hwang, that bastard had probably laid Dongho on his face on purpose, so that he wouldn’t drown in his own vomit if he had to puke in his sleep again. Dongho swore that he wasn’t even drunk.

He wanted to get up and run to him to cuss him out. But then again, Minhyuns pillows smelled so nice and clean he didn’t mind sitting like this for a while. The further he nuzzled his nose into the plush duvet under him, the more he could sense Minhyun, as if he were close to the real thing. He wished to hug the duvet closer, but his tight jeans and his rolled down sleeves were restricting him from even embracing those warm, scented sheets.

His dazed brain immediately conjured the image of Minhyun in the same bed as him, making him recall things that had happened right here. Dongho was so confused, why was he thing about them right now – they should not mean a thing.

Dongho mewled, his knee grinding against the sheets below him trying to find friction, suddenly his whole body was itchy, hot and sweaty. He tried to drive his hips deeper into the soft mattress, but his own legs were in the way. The bed creaked when he tried again, hips helplessly leaning up and down along the beds surface. His mouth parted and teeth bit against the fabric of the pillow.

He made a frightened sound when he felt a sudden sting in his spine. Dongho reopened his eyes to find himself flipped around facing the ceiling, Minhyuns worried face hovered above his.

“Is everything alright?” The tall man was genuine, his hand was on Donghos cheek and then his forehead, checking for sign of a fever.

“You are burning.” He removed his hand from forehead that was layered with fresh sweat.

“I feel bad. Really bad.” Dongho whined, trying to shift his body up in bed, but the energy he once had before was no longer there, just again his low tolerance of pain.

“I’ll get you some water.” Minhyun was about to run to the kitchen and back, but Donghos hand slapped around his wrist like a lock.

“Stay with me, you bastard.” Dongho begged, pulling his friend back with everything he had left in him. Minhyun unwillingly fell on top of him.

Minhyun was on Donghos chest, matching the height of his face so that there was nowhere else to look, but directly at him. It was shocking at first, but it didn’t take long for Hwang to revert back into his smirking, sly self.

While stuck like this, Minhyun started to notice things about Kang, he wasn’t actually ill up close. But the guy was certainly all red and blushing.

“I hate you.” Dongho spoke with a dry throat. Minhyun lost all of his worry, “Why do you want me to be here if you hate me?”

Dongho paused, he tried to think of a reason, but it was almost if his own brain was working against him and purposely hiding it from him. “I don’t know.” He sounded shocked.

“I think I know.” Minhyun playfully smirked at the other man, testing his patience. Dongho became upset, sulky and not willing to speak to the moron anymore.

“Stop insinuating things, that is not gonna happen.” Dongho denounced his stance about wanting Minhyun to stay with him. That bastard could go and shove it now.

“Don’t you remember that one time you said you wished I was a girl, so you could date me?” Minhyun leaned to mock him directly in his ear.

“You are wrong.” He spoke with confidence.

“I am right.” Minhyun insisted.

“Ok, whatever.” Dongho yawned, shaking Hwang away from himself to sleep by laying on his side. “Should I still stay?” Minhyuns whispering voice came from behind him.

“Yeah.” He answered as soon as asked.


	13. Chapter 13

After hours of vampiric slumber, Donghos eyes finally shot open in a flash. 

His ears had picked up the faint sound of the morning alarm going off on his phone somewhere inside of the apartment. The day was bright, rays of sun beamed right through the large glass apartment windows and straight into his face as soon as he had raised his neck to try and guess what time it actually was.

His head felt a bit heavy, he had almost no recollection of what exactly happened last night, or how he had ended up on a bed instead of the usual couch.

His panicked state of confusion came to an abrupt halt as soon as he found Minhyun, still wearing his clothes from last night, laying snuggled up by his side. The tall guy was smiling in his sleep, dreaming about something happy, and Dongho couldn’t stop staring at him.

But the same calmness that came over him when he watched Hwang sleeping peacefully and pretty next to him soon became the exact thing that terrified him. Donghos eyeballs began trembling in their sockets when he had finalized a very scary thought in his head. He was actually starting to like this kid – what the hell, Dongho thought.

He sat up in bed and ruffled his hair in annoyance, but those thoughts weren’t going away at all. Hwang had cursed him, put poison in his food or something. No way in hell Kang would see himself liking someone, let alone Hwang Minhyun, anyone but him.

Since he was already dressed, there wasn’t much else for him to do before rushing back out the door of the apartment before Minhyun was to wake up. He only grabbed his duffel bag, tube of toothpaste without a brush and electric razor, then he fled to the university for his early classes. 

But before he had left, his feet were considerate, quiet like cats paws tip toeing out to the door.

The tall male shot one of his spying eyes open to see Dongho already bending over at the door to put on a shoe. Minhyun instantly shut his same eye, pretending he was asleep the whole time.

Dongho had bitten his lip while he looked over his own shoulder because of an itching feeling at the back of his neck that made it feel like someone had been watching him, but when he looked at Minhyun, that guy was still sound asleep.

Mingi sat in lunchroom by himself, too introverted to bring himself to speak with the other students in the cafeteria who weren’t already his friends. Just as he was chomping down his next bite in calm and solitude, two shady men approached his table.

He scolded Aaron and Jonghyun, who’s faces he had to see everyday without a break, “Why do you guys keep bothering me? Can’t you live without me for a day?”

Jonghyun glanced at Aaron and then back at his other friend to talk about why they had met up, “Aaron just broke up with his girlfriend and he needs us to be there for him.” The second tallest reminded.

“Oh shoot, you are right.” Mingi switched gears and went to extend a chair for his heartbroken friend. Jonghyun sat in his own, glaring at his tallest friend in hopes that the jerk wouldn’t say something insensitive.

“So why did you break up anyways?” Mingi spat out. He didn’t think it would be rude to ask since that relationship going downhill for a long time was nothing new.

Aaron jolted down in his seat, of course there were multiple valid reasons for it, but him falling in love with asshole Kang had been the last straw.

“Uhh—” He died inside while trying to come up with a solid case for himself. His clumsy hands lead him to spill sauce over his own fingers, they trembled in air while helpless eyes looked for a non existent tissue.

“I’ll go get some, my boy.” Jonghyun stood up and ran off to play the little servant for his friend to aid him while he was hurt. Mingi had to laugh at him too.

That left only two of the men at the table. Mingi stared at him trying to guess the answer to his own question himself. Once he had figured it out, he leaned in as if he was whispering a secret. 

“Dude, I know you are old, but you can’t be that old.” His eyes narrowed in suspicion, closing in even more. “Listen, I actually know a good guy who can hook you up with some male vitality supplements from this cool site online. And it’s totally not a scam!”

“What?” Aaron nervously was taken aback, “It isn’t that. I just like someone else.” He spat own in his own defence, although he feared his own words.

Aaron paused, a moment later he began talking again, “I mean, she already wanted to break up with me anyways, and she probably would’ve done it in the matter of days on her own. But I didn’t want to waste her time and be honest.”

“You like someone?” Mingi was surprised hearing Aaron reluctantly talking about it as if he had committed some kind of a great sin to find someone attractive.

After Aarons long celibate silence, Mingis pupils dilated in realization, “You aren’t like Dongho, right?” Mingi added a small gasp, thinking about how that guy had gone from being with a new woman everyday to being with one man for a lifetime.

“Dongho?” Aaron acted as if he had never heard that name before.

Mingi then dropped back into his seat, spawning a grumpy frown. “Yeah, Dongho.” Mingi suddenly remembered about that jerk who wasn’t even brave enough to show his face today after last night.

“You know, I really thought that him and his alleged boyfriend were both faking it for whatever reason. But turns out they are – actually, mashing one another.”

“W-what makes you think that?” Aaron was interested to hear this, but he had to make his interest in the subject as little known as possible to avoid ratting himself out on the spot.

Mingi tilt his head deep in thought, “You didn’t come, so you didn’t get to see it. At first he was being really awkward last night around Minhyun, like a shy schoolboy of sorts, and then next thing you know, the two jerks were swapping spit before my very own eyes!”

While talking, the tallest had formed scissors out of his fingers and gestured himself stabbing his own eyes out with them. Meanwhile, Aaron went pale trying not to imagine it and have that affect him. 

“Then Dongho got a bit loud and tried to take off his shoes to fight Minhyun, so then they both left together.” Mingi shuddered as if he had the chills from having to remember the way his friend had made fool of himself back there.

The word – together, it forever echoed in Aarons brain which had now shrank to a size of a peanut when thinking about all the things that could have happened between those two from there.

Mingi narrowed his eyes at Aaron, who’s face had gone all stiff and statue like in a sudden. It was suspicious, deemed Mingi. “You still didn’t answer my question.” He reminded.

“What question?” Aaron was lost.

The next second, Jonghyun crash-landed beside him, to wipe hand of his best buddy with some torn toilet papers which he had stolen out of a stall. The conversation happening before he had come back was cut short when he did.

Arms mighty and crossed, Minhyun waited for Dongho outside of the schools gate, his car incorrectly parked right behind him like he was some kind of a show off. Dongho had to roll his eyes and reposition the shoulder strap of his duffel bag when walking towards him.

It was very obvious what the people around them thought of Minhyuns little stage play – freshmen were all covering their mouths to exchange shy whispers and giggles, watching Dongho walking at the fancy car of the handsome stranger. 

Minhyun only smiled at the grumpy boy, ignoring anyone else. “Did you know how many people have asked me out while I stood out here?” He spoke to the guy who was doing everything to ignore him and just get into the car before anyone watching them could guess their connection.

“Get in before your shit gets towed.” Dongho warned him, leaning low to find his way into the car seat. Minhyun laughed and hopped in too. 

“Calm down, I just got here a second ago.” Minhyun teased, but Dongho remained tight lipped.

“You sound jealous.” Minhyun made his comment loud enough for everyone around to hear right before he shut his car door. Dongho glared at him with a murderous stare meant to intimidate him.

When on the road, Minhyun smiled forwards at the road like it was the happiest day of his life, meanwhile Dongho was upset with the world, shoulders sucked into his body. They were both thinking about waking up together earlier.

Minhyun liked waking up next to the guy, and he knew Dongho had liked it too. He wanted to do it again sometime. “Do you remember last night?” The tallest spoke to refresh his friends memory.

Dongho both shrug and then snort, “What of it?” He did remember everything by now, yet that brief moment while he had forgotten had been a total bliss. He was embarrassed as hell, on edge knowing that Minhyun was going to bully him about it.

“What is it?” Dongho demanded. “Just say it then.”

“I just wanted to make sure you don’t forget, that is all.” Minhyun winked at the man who hid his face from him by looking out the window on the side.

They stopped at a traffic stop, a long line of cars piled in front of them before the next turn. In the meanwhile, while his fingers tapped on the steering wheel, Minhyun turned his grin at Dongho again to secretly scan him.

He gazed at man who’s ears were made of red. “He is totally digging me already.” Minhyun thought, seeing as Kang would shy away as soon as their eyes met. 

Dongho was also thinking, “That bastard is staring at me like I smell.”

As soon as the line of cars moved, Minhyun kept driving straight instead of taking the turn. “You wouldn’t mind it if I drive somewhere else first?” He explained the cause, Dongho didn’t actually have a choice in the matter it seemed like.

“It’s not like I have anywhere else to go, because if I go home then I will still have to look at your shitty face anyway.” Kang kept looking out the window all grumpy and upset. By now Minhyun could tell it was his only defence mechanism.

Throughout the lengthy drive, Dongho never asked for where they were heading until they had neared cliff sides off the edge of the capital where rich folk lived in their mansion retirement homes. Minhyun began to turn into a road that lead them to a small suburb of stray houses – villas with pools in the front and the back, as well as mansions that had even up to four garage doors.

Dongho shot his head from right to left amazed by the location. Minhyun pulled into a driveway of one such a mansion parking his sport car on the edge of a small roundabout surrounding a flowerbed in the middle.

When the car was still, he finally came to explain to Dongho why he had bought the guy along, “This is my dad’s house, as well as childhood home. I wanted to show this place to you.”

Dongho wouldn’t unbuckle his seatbelt in fear, “You aren’t making me meet your parents right?” He acted like an unwilling groom about to be wed to Hwang against his will.

Minhyun laughed, “No. My father isn’t home, and my step mother pretends I don’t exist.” His laugh became a sullen sigh near the end.

“I’ve never done sleepover parties as a kid because didn’t have many friends. So how about I do one now?” Minhyun spoke.

Ever since earlier while the two men were laying down so peacefully side by side in a large bed, Minhyun wanted to have another chance to wake up in the morning warm and next to Dongho. It was blissful, almost magical. He couldn’t think of a better way to achieve that than this.

He suddenly unbuckled his seatbelt forcing Dongho to hurry up and do the same. “Now? All of a sudden? Please, my guy reconsider!” Dongho rotated his neck trying to follow the ears of the guy who had forced this upon him.

“I didn’t sign up for this—hey, wait up!” Dongho switched to yelling when Minhyun had closed the door on his side.

Dongho nervously followed Minhyun who walked towards the big pale house surrounded by tall perfectly square shaped hedges. The guy wondered why Hwang had wanted to show his childhood home to him now. Was this a part of some kind of a weird bonding bro moment, he raised his brow.

There were steps that lead upward to a big entrance door, bigger than any door Dongho had ever seen, with painted glass surrounded it. Minhyun didn’t need to ring the doorbell, he just input the passcode and went right in.

Dongho slowly ventured his amazed eyes around the first room, staring straight up at the ceiling in awe. Ahead was a long hallway in all white with very high ceiling. The shelves along walls displayed a large collection porcelain dishes.

An older woman came to see who was at the door, she bowed at Minhyun and his friend, already recognizing him as Kang. Minhyuns apartment housemaid now worked back at his fathers house. It was the same maid was the one who had introduced Hwang to Donghos aunt. 

He almost jolted suddenly feeling Minhyun sneak his hand inside of Donghos fingers, before it came to him that it was just for the show. He hesitantly returned the tug. 

Minhyuns youngest step sister happened to be running downstairs just as her half sibling stood in the lobby. She had headphones on her ears, so she had not noticed them up until she was already about to crash into them.

She made the nastiest grimace at her brother, hating the fact that he had the free range to invade the families house whenever he felt like, even though he didn’t even live here. This time he had bought in a vagrant along with him. 

Dongho was standing on top of the polished reflective wood floors in his dirtied running shoes and wore a light hoodie that had stains reminiscent of the time he spilled ketchup on himself last semester. To say the least, he did not make the best impression of himself, although in his own defence he had never known he would step into such a fancy home today – or ever.

She groaned out loud and went back upstairs to her room where she could slam the door shut and stay there until the uninvited guests would leave. Dongho looked up at Minhyun about to ask, “Is that your sis?”

Minhyun shook his head to deny, “Step-sister, I got two of those.” He barely even knew them.

Dongho kept looking up at the way that the little girl had ran off to after reaching the top of that tall, tall staircase. He bought his sights down to his arm right as he felt a warm ticklish sensation again – Minhyuns hand.

The boy had grabbed him by the elbow this time and began dragging him, spilling cheesy smiles on Dongho as if he had some mischievous plan in mind.

They stomped through the halls of the first floor following a straight path, on the other end stood a door just as big as the one at the front. Minhyun unlocked it the same way and it lead outside to the backyard.

Donghos eyes lit up before the picturesque sight straight out of some rich real estate ad. There were white brick stairs leading down to a pool area where shining blue water stood still. That pool oversaw a large flat grass field area behind it that looked much like golfing court. In the furthest distance, tall willow trees lined the edges of the field.

The short man ran ahead to squat near the edge of the still water pool, making a baffled face. Minhyun slowly came from behind him, arms crossed. “It would be too cold to jump in, so don’t even think about it.” He warned.

“I wasn’t even going to idiot.” Dongho said after he was totally going to do it. He stood up and turned around just when Minhyun had put his arms out. The urge to make that guy plunge into the water was just too strong.

“Hey, you know that I can’t swim very well, right?” Dongho could, but not after being pushed.

“But I thought you were athletic?” Minhyun pout, lowering his hands that still itched to push him. Even though he would just most likely he get a cramp and drown.

“Yeah – on land.” Dongho emphasized, making Minhyun laugh. His laugh was so loud they then both saw a curtain in the room of the second floor of the house violently throw itself shut. It was probably that sister being mad upstairs again.

The two men became awkward after being seen together. Minhyun shrugged, and again took Donghos hand to flee away from the windows of the house with him.

“Let me show you my treehouse.” Minhyun made the tiny hairs on top of Donghos earlobes stand up. “A treehouse?” He spoke all excited like a kid. “Yup!” Hwang promised.

This time Dongho didn’t try to stall his feel or yank back. The two slowed down when walking across the big green plain, and Minhyun sneezed with a baby like noise as soon as pollen of the hills behind his mansion home had gotten into his nostrils because of his allergies. The two stopped at a big willow tree that cast a giant shadow underneath it, providing a roof from the sun. 

Minhyun looked up, actively searching for something, but his neck soon gave up stretching and bending, “They must have taken it down.” He spoke.

Dongho groaned, as he had already gotten all of his hopes up and now it was like this. It was grim for Minhyun too, that tree house was damn cool.

The disappointment on his face was instantly recognized by the Dongho, who panicked trying to think of ways to fix everything. “Lets just sit under here, in the shade.”

Minhyun watched him take the initiative and sit directly on the roots of the tree, back pressed against the large trunk. He slowly sat down himself after some thinking, deciding that he would just trash his clean outfit afterwards instead of washing it off from all this dirt and insect juice later.

The two men sat and gazed at the green field. The horizon was high when they sat on the ground and the house was not visible behind the low hanging ribbons of leaves draping down from the willow tree.

“You must have been a lucky kid to get your own treehouse.” Dongho tried to not sound envious.

Minhyun laughed in a way that sounded rather sad, “Yeah, it was my only favorite thing about this place.”

Dongho turned his head to look at Minhyun. Who sat so close, looking pretty and wistful while staring facing straight. His side profile highlighted his tiny brittle eyelashes, fluttering to the vibrations of his own speech.

“How come?” Dongho spoke, completely fixated on the mans face. Minhyun didn’t even know he was being stared at so intensively.

“It was the only place where I could hide from everyone. My family, all the maids and butlers.” He chuckled about those times, “I would sit in there for hours before anyone would realize that I had escaped from my room.” He spoke.

Minhyun stared at the direction of the house with a heavy look of regret on his face, “I remember how everyone always freaked out when they couldn’t find me, yelling far across the property, combing the whole area with flashlights hoping to find me in the grass, while I hid up there.”

“Yet when they had finally found me, I was placed back in my room and no one came to check up on me afterwards, not even to ask why had I ran away.” His comment made Dongho jolt. Now Dongho wasn’t so envious of him having a treehouse anymore.

He continued, “No one really showed that they cared about me back then, or if they did then it was only their duty to care about me.”

“So I’ve never experienced how it is when someone genuinely likes me until now.” Minhyuns words instantly made Dongho snap his neck back up in realization.

“Hey now! What the hell are you trying to imply you prick?” Dongho started to clumsily yell all while slurring on his every word. 

“I never said I liked you!” He defended himself.

“Sometimes, actions speak more than words.” Minhyun chuckled, pointing a finger at the tip of Donghos nose. The other mans eyes crossed trying to follow it, before he lightly shoved it from his face.

“Actions my ass.” Dongho pretended to spit behind his own shoulder. 

Minhyuns grin was the most annoying thing in the world at the time, the guy wasn’t listening to Donghos defences and it only made him more frustrated. It had been just a joke, he hadn’t realized that yet.

Instead, his brain conjured some other paranoid nonsense. “I see how it is now.” Dongho sat away from Minhyun and faced him directly, like a police investigator sitting in front of a suspect. The tallest could not hold from bursting out laughing. 

Dongho had to yell over his loud laugh, “You bought me out here to your childhood home just so you could be like – Oh, Kang! There are so many memories that this place brings! And now I want to make new memories right here with you – or some shit like that, right?” 

He mimicked the way Minhyuns voice would sound like if he had a bigger hole in his head. “And then right when I let down my guard, you would lay your grubby little hands on me!”

Minhyun smiled with a sealed mouth and closed eyes, leaning in at Dongho to shake his head. He said, “Actually, you will definitely be the one laying your hands on me first if anything.”

“In your fucking dreams.” Dongho bounced his butt backwards on the ground just to distance himself even further from this colossal idiot. 

A second after the tantrum, Dongho sat back in his original spot leaning his back up against the tree, this time with his arms crossed, looking like a giant angry man child. However, he wasn’t actually mad, Minhyun could tell just by those reddish blushing earlobes.

The silent treatment was short, “Hey Minhyun, will we get dinner? I am starving out here.” 

Dongho saw the green fields become dark as clouds had moved over the skies, as if it were late already. Minhyun shrugged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aron: i just broke up :/  
> ren: thats so sad *dabs*


	14. Chapter 14

The two headed upstairs of the house, a long hallway was leading them down to where all the bedrooms were. Hwang opened a random door made of wood painted white that looked like any other door of the house, but turns out it was his childhood bedroom.

“What do ya’ think?” Minhyun let the other man walk in by himself.

Dongho slowly entered the large bedroom that was the size of a small apartment, it even had it’s own bathroom and a balcony. He was in awe. Yet somehow it didn’t look like a child’s room, all the walls were white even the duvets were too. Dongho had imagined a young boy would want a race car bed with flames on the side and have it full of plushies. 

It was unusual the way everything here was so bland and dull. And it was even more eerie how clean everything was, how little personality the place gave off, despite being the room that young Hwang grew up in.

Minhyun sat on a beds edge, firm but bouncy inviting Dongho to join him. The guy didn’t hesitate to sit on it too.

“Soo—what are the damages?” Minhyun could tell how boring his old room must seem to Dongho. “It kinda sucks.” Dongho showed a bit of envy at how large it was. His pretend boyfriend laughed at him.

“You are the first person I’ve ever bought here.” Minhyun surprised the other, “As a child I had always wondered what someone else would think of my room.” 

He turned to Dongho with a toothy grin, “That is why I bought you here.” Dongho comically raised his finger to point at himself, a question mark floating above his head.

He continued to speak after a pause, “I wanted to show you more of me before you decide to move any forward.” Minhyun spoke like a true poet. 

Dongho blinked his now nervous eyes, shortening the length of his finger which was still pointed at himself. “Move forward? Minhyun, wait a second—”

Minhyun shot his head away, “I was just kidding, idiot. Don’t overreact.” He chuckled to himself.

“Ah.” Dongho spoke in relief, but from the corner of his vision Minhyun could see that the man had placed both of his hands on his knees, fingers slowly clenching and gripping in place as if there was something he was holding in from saying.

Literally out of nowhere the guy jumped at him to hug him, so his unsaid words got sucked back into his throat. It was intentional, Minhyun didn’t want him to speak or be worried. It troubled him too when Dongho was like that.

Dongho fell on his back in bed and Minhyun landed on top, placing his arms around Donghos far frame to force him into a fierce bear hug. Hwang squealed and giggled, kicking his legs like a kid while trying to hold the beast down, Dongho both whined and laughed with him.

“You jerk.” Dongho smiled with wide parted teeth while wincing his eyes shut, hoping it would help to mute the pain in his lower spine that the jerk had caused by jumping on him like that. Minhyun laughed back, “What about it?”

After Dongho no longer showed a sign concern on his face, Minhyun rolled off from him. He was panting and still barely able to stop himself from snickering. They were both spread out on the huge bed, looking at the ceiling above them. Minhyuns hand sat just above Donghos, the guy didn’t mind holding it this time.

“How old were you when you lived here?” Dongho asked, looking up as if the ceiling were the sky.

The bed beside him jolt when Hwang did a shrug, “I didn’t live here for very long. I had another bedroom in my moms house, but she moved around a lot, so by the time I turned ten I had a place of my own.”

“Alright, no need to brag.” Dongho couldn’t imagine a ten year old being so spoiled rich that he could also own his own apartment. But at the same time it sounded sad, because instead of parents Minhyun was raised my butlers.

While Minhyun was still giggling, another sudden question popped into Kangs head, “How did you come out to your parents?” He hoped he wasn’t being too nosey.

Truth be told the guy couldn’t even remember if he had ever seen them react, Minhyun spoke, “They both work in a celebrity industry, so I suppose for them it probably wasn’t anything unheard of.”

He continued, “My mom has been married three times, and my dad and step-mom only pretend to love each other.”

“Father wants to have a family before retiring and my step-mother wants her daughters to succeed just like any other parent would.” Minhyun shrug his shoulders. “Thus, no one probably cares about who I would end up with all that much either.”

Dongho turned to him on the mattress, scooting closer so that he could cuddle next to Minhyuns side without being excessive or saying anything else stupid, for example, about how he felt bad for Minhyun or wished he himself could make him feel less lonely.

During the hug, he felt like it was his duty to comfort Minhyun the same way he had been raised to always those around him, Dongho would do the same thing for any friend. Yet laying in same bed as Hwang was making him feel different.

The tall male appreciated the silent affectionate gesture and turned to hug his friend back by hanging his arms over Donghos upwards slanted hips. 

Donghos breaths gradually became low to match Minhyuns. Hid eyelids moved slowly, just laying down in a bed so comfortable was making him sleepy. However, Minhyuns face is what kept him awake. Why should he sleep if he felt like he was in a dream already, he asked himself.

“Fuck this.” Dongho told himself in his head after a whole lot of pondering. The two stared down for only a second more before Dongho stretched his neck to kiss the other man.

There went him saying how he didn’t even like Minhyun, as he was the first one to initiate this. 

At this point, after having done this a couple of times already, kissing with this guy felt so normal to him, in a moment of madness, he just wanted to do it again and again.

The sideways angle was causing for there to be an open gap where the edges of their lips did not meet, thus it quickly became a mushy and wet kiss. Minhyuns previously placed hand pressed Dongho closer to himself by holding into the back of his waist. Donghos hand slid from the other mans neck to his chest, pushing an pulling onto his shirt.

Dongho winced out of the embrace feeling something grab hard into his ass – Minhyun that bastard. He laid there grinning with his teeth barely shown from behind his puffy pink lips.

At the sight of it, Dongho leaped back into the kiss as if he were hungry, his knee threw itself over Minhyun and spread, putting him into a position where he was straddling Minhyun.

Minhyun now laid on his back, his hands holding onto either side of the other mans cheeks. “Wait!” He called. Dongho looked like he had been caught, eyes big and scared.

“Maybe we should lock the room door first?” Minhyun spoke after a brief pause. 

“Oh.” Dongho was relieved that his friend wasn’t asking him to fuck off instead.

The two sat up from their last position, awkward and unable to face one another. Dongho feared Minhyun would see how red his cheeks were, the other man hoped not to look at Kang before closing that door first, otherwise he would forget about it in a second.

Neither of them were getting up to do it, there had been a small miscommunication it seemed like. Dongho was the first one to realize it, and prepared to run himself face first into that door to shut it, “I’ll go!”

“No, let me do it.” Minhyun grabbed his arm in the right moment. “Okay.” Dongho sat there, looking away to wipe the sweat slipping down his neck.

This was so tense and awkward, as Dongho waited there for him to come back just so they could continue, he felt as if he was already dying.

Minhyuns weight returned to the bed, so he instantly looked up to see him. Dongho expected for him to be just as nervous, but Minhyun no longer had any hesitation in his eyes. His new sultry stare scanned Kang up and down, making the guy blush even more.

Dongho swore, when he was with girls he was never not confident not even for a second. But Minhyun made him feel like he was made out of butter, about to melt down into the bed if he was to be caressed by him. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to touch him back, but he didn’t even know how, as he had never been with a guy. All the tricks he had learned with women were useless now. 

Minhyun moved at him first, grabbing Dongho by the back of his neck and gluing their lips together once more, only this time he dragged the man down with him. Dongho laid on top of him again, except the guy below him was actually in charge. 

Minhyun stole Donghos mouth and in-between the soft, gentle kisses, made small loving bites on that bottom lip whenever he could. Together their bodies moved in small waves, Dongho was highly reactive, he would jolt and tug at even the slightest contact.

Minhyuns soft lips brushing over his own made him shudder, eyes leak as they had powerfully winced shut. Dongho could barely move because he was mesmerized, trapped inside of some kind of a spell. It broke as soon as Minhyun began to slide his body even more further up, their lips lost contact.

Dongho was on his knees, now hovering above the mans stomach when he had moved away to sit so far. Minhyun was staring down at the other man with the most desperate look, a hand had been placed inside the other mans hair.

“Ah? Is something wrong?” Dongho worried, heat still radiating off from his face. “Nothing is wrong. It’s not that.” Minhyun consoled him, but his face was pained.

Obviously, there was something if Minhyun had pushed the other away so abruptly when their bodies felt so well pressed together just a moment ago. “Then what is it?” Dongho spoke.

“By any chance – do you remember what you promised the other night?” Minhyun reminded. 

“Wha—t do you mean?” Dongho had no clue. “Use your head, dumbass.” Minhyun told him to think harder, or was that perhaps a double meaning. Dongho was too dense to instantly understand, it took him a second.

“Oh, shit.” Dongho cursed out loud remembering that he had said that he would suck the bastard off at one point to make it fair. Now Minhyun was turned on and he really wished the jerk would keep his word for once.

His eyes were so confused and anxious it made Minhyun laugh. “It’s fine, just use your hands.” He suggested a cop out for the guy.

“No.” Dongho showed his might, although perhaps not at the most polite of times. He thinned his lips looking down at the guys dressed groin. “I’ll do it.”

Minhyun froze stiff, while the fire in the pit of his stomach continued to grow. He carefully watched as nervous fingers had already crept up to undo the zipper of the pants, but it almost drew open by itself as pressure from inside raised free. Donghos catlike eyes grew ten times to match the size of the heat his pretend boyfriend was packing inside of those grey briefs.

“Still up for it?” Minhyun laughed long from above. “It’s huge.” Dongho needed a quiet moment to process this. He had gone from a zero to a hundred a little too quick.

“You haven’t even seen it yet, jackass.” Minhyun waited for his underwear to fully disappear off from his legs first. Yet the other man was hesitating for too long for his liking.

Dongho gulped, and his fingers finally raised to truly unveil the guy from his clothes. As soon as he pulled back the hem of the briefs, his dick popped right out – instantly giving off heat that hit his face.

His once widened eyes melted into thin lines, the guy was in middle of a realization that never ever had he been attracted to a dick before, but this one made him stare in literal awe at how bright and beautiful it was. 

“What you glaring at it for?” Minhyun laughed at his friends mixed reaction.

Dongho seemed too busy to respond. He tried to widen his mouth to the point his stuck out tongue, but it looked like his mouth wouldn’t go wide enough for it to even go fit inside of his tight lips.

Despite not knowing what to do other than to know to just put his mouth around it, he made the first attempt, slowly leaning in to press his lips down around the tip and try to gradually use his tongue to scroll over the heated skin.

Minhyun winced, his thumb curling inside of Donghos locks reacting to his hot mouth. The guy was good with his tongue, but he wasn’t actually sucking at all. He only ran wet laps around the head, occasionally dipping and pressing his tongue up against the slit.

“Here, move a little” Minhyun angled the mans head and lowered it a bit until the head of his dick was gone inside those fluffy hamster cheeks.

Dongho listened although he had no clue what he was doing, he mimicked the things he had seen in either porn or first hand. Eventually he learned to bob his head and began to scroll his lips tight around the length. Each time he thrust his mouth down, he had the habit of trying to inhale through his mouth, so his eyes kept opening and closing fearing he was about to black out from sucking on it.

Minhyuns hand pet his scalp, so he assumed it meant that he was doing a good job and continued, more viciously, shaping his lips so they would squeeze even more. It worked, Minhyun entered a bliss. He pant louder and his fingers started to pull into Donghos hair to the point it was almost painful no matter how gentle he tried to be.

Not even realizing it, the big guy made the loudest sounds, slurps and licks started to fill the hollow childhood bedroom. Minhyun threw his head back to let out a series of grunts.

The man tried to swallow more of the whole length, until it hit the depths of his mouth. But soon his eyes began to tear up from him ramming dick into his tight throat, thus Minhyun pulled the guy off for a bit.

“You are trying too hard.” He chuckled in-between his sweet mewls. Minhyuns face had become weak, like every muscle of his had given up.

“Sorry.” Dongho tried to speak, despite Minhyun still being in his mouth, so his red tongue was blocked from ever touching the roof of his mouth to make certain sounds and it sounded like babbling.

Droll mixed with sweat amongst other things all became a dripping wet mess over the mans twitchy length. Donghos fingers were sticky and shining when holding onto his boyfriends shaft. Dongho had already swallowed it multiple times.

Overtime, Minhyuns breaths became so intense that even his chest began to raise like it was full, he was close to finishing now. Dongho shut his eyes just so he could thrust his head with more vigour to please him until the very end.

“Look this way,” Minhyun suddenly called him, pulling him up in bed by his chin for a kiss. Dongho replaced his mouth on the mans leaking dick with his hand.

Minhyun could taste himself inside of Donghos mouth and he could swear it tasted sweet. Their tongues met in the middle slick against one another, forming a line of spit when it was time for them to part. Dongho almost didn’t want to let him go.

The tallest threw his head back in ecstasy, and saw fireworks go off under his closed eyelids, just like the ones him and Dongho had kissed under for the first time.

Dongho could feel a twitch in his hand, seconds later Minhyun alerted him with a quiet moan. His legs shot together as if he was trying to cross them, but Donghos hand was there. A louder moan slipped from the same hoarse throat, Donghos hand flooded with Minhyuns release.

While Minhyun was making that face, Dongho couldn’t help not to kiss him. He had decided not to care about it now, they had already gone pretty much all the way anyway. His kisses ended up being more like puppy smears, he couldn’t land a proper one while all Minhyun did was laugh.

After the rush of adrenaline had died down for the both of them, Dongho was left confused, dazed and a little bit hot. Soon his ear dropped down onto Minhyuns flat chest with a plop and the two decided to lay there. Minhyun pet the head of his friend, grinning at him.

Two men had laid there in Minhyuns childhood bed for a long while up until eventually it was starting to get chilly. The tallest was sitting there with his naked legs open to the cool air and as his temperature continued to slow down after the intense moment he gained goose bumps.

Dongho wasn’t asleep, but he wished he was. His mind was a total mess, but his body stayed glued to Minhyuns. He finally moved, causing Minhyun to make an unpleasant sound when he rode his jeans over the mans still sensitive parts.

“You okay?” The shortest glanced up at Minhyun, who somehow looked as dashing as always, as opposed to the red and slimy faced Dongho giving him the worried look.

“Are you okay?” Minhyun directed the same question back at Dongho, laughing at his dumbfounded face.

Dongho started to pick himself up by getting on his elbows, “Heh, yeah.” Their sticky and wet skin was not the most pleasant thing to keep touching, the sheets had gone dirty too.

With him Minhyun also sat up, pulling his pants into his lap to cover himself before the eyes of his friend, even though there was no point now that Dongho already knew what he fucking tasted like.

“I want to drive us home before the nightfall” Minhyun abruptly sat himself up.

“But you just said this would be a sleepover?” Dongho accused him with a finger that point so sharp that Minhyun had to tilt his chin up and gulp, eyes crossed looking down at the weapon.

Minhyun shook his head, taking Donghos finger hostage inside of his own palm. “Maybe I just had the wrong idea about what a sleepover is.” He teased.

Dongho turned away from Minhyun, taking his hand back to himself and petting it with the other like a hurt paw. “You are insufferable.” He spoke.

On their ride back home Dongho proceeded to desperately look for any mints everywhere in the car. Minhyun had told he had some and he had just forgotten where they had been put, even though he actually didn’t have any. For him it was funny watching Dongho rummage through the glovebox in search for something to use to sanitize his mouth. He could tell exactly what was on the poor dudes mind.

Dongho leaned back properly into his seat after giving up and looked out the window expecting to arrive back into the inner city any minute now.

“Are you going to be okay?” Minhyun tried his hardest not to laugh. A thoughtful look crossed Donghos face, like he was trying to make a really difficult decision that would determine his fate. Finally he settled to speak the truth.

“I’ll probably have nightmares about you now.” His answer gave Minhyun a pleased grin.

“By the way,” Minhyuns voice made him straighten his back all of a sudden. “I told the housemaid that I had spilled something in my room earlier, so she might have heard us when she came to clean it.”

Donghos eyes become red as a bull, “Is that why you suddenly went to lock doors?” Minhyuns silent snicker was a confirmation. “Dude!” He whined.

“Chill out, she will only tell your aunt and then bada-bing-bada-boom, everyone gets fooled and works out.” Minhyun bragged.

Dongho believed him, but he certainly didn’t like it, “Don’t bada-bing me, you puny prick. I don’t want my family to know everything, you know?”

“I mean, everyone already knows that you are a man of ill repute regardless.” Minhyun made fun of Dongho once more since Kang was already notorious for fucking anything that had a cute face.

Dongho got tired of wanting to fight that air head, “Why did I ever have to start caring about you.” Dongho quietly groaned under his breath. Minhyun had barely heard that, but began acting all slimy and coy.

“What was that?” He acted interested to hear it again. Dongho barked his voice, “Do you ever know how to your own fucking business?” 

Minhyun shook his head while giggling, then flipped his wheel as soon as he saw a convenience store on the next street. “Mints, right?” Minhyun asked again.

“Actually, I want an ice cream.” Dongho grunt under his lip.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sry for filler content ill try to get back on the groove as soon as i can
> 
> edit: i already published but only now spotted more typos im about to lose my last hair

The university had a small outdoor amphitheatre behind it, it was tucked away in a green park area where during summer students bought out campus picnic chairs or sat around on the grass plains while studying. After it had rained just recently this morning, the only dry seats were the pavement steps that served as seats for the theatre.

Aaron sat there by himself wearing big headphones to purposely zone out his surroundings, trying to drawn out his thoughts with just music. Soon he was joined by Jonghyun, who’s quick steps down the rows of seats made Aaron lift the right side of his headphone off his ear and look back behind him.

Jonghyun sighed in relief when finding Aaron, he plopped himself down on the curb with his friend, stretching his long legs. “Hey Aaron, what you doing in a quiet spot like this?”

Aaron chuckled and scratched his chin. He didn’t even realize that he had been missing until now. “I’ve just been thinking about some stuff.” He spoke slowly, enough to attract Jonghyuns eyes of concern.

For a second there while waiting for Jonghyun to start rambling about something, Aaron considered confessing to his friend about what was actually bothering him.

For days now he had been dreaming about one bastard, Kang. It had gotten to the point where not even him hooking up with someone else new would take that fucking piece of shit jerk off his mind. In fact, he now couldn’t even get himself up anymore unless he pictured that guy in his head, which always lead into an awkward conversation with his current dates.

“You must be upset about your girlfriend. I am so sorry that had to happen to you man.” Jonghyun spoke in a sad tone after a long pause. 

“Definitely.” Aaron lied, he didn’t even have time to think about that anymore.

“I hope you find someone new soon!” The familiar deep, yet whiny voice of his friend suddenly jumped high trying to find right words to say to a grieving friend.

But what if he did as Jonghyun told him and just asked Dongho out, would that be messed up or what, he asked himself. Aaron had to swallow what tasted like fear sitting at the back of his throat.

Dongho and Minhyun weren’t actually a real thing, Aaron knew all about that already. So he did stand a chance. But then again, what he had seen on that night seemed pretty convincing back then.

“Hey Jonghyun? Can I ask you something?” He spoke after a short pause of thought. The tallest gave him a firm nod.

“Do you think its possible for someone at my age to suddenly find out that they are attracted to someone totally unexpected?” Aaron didn’t want to ask advice for himself, rather he pretended that he had this one friend he knew.

Jonghyun was a little surprised to hear such an odd question and Aaron saw that Jonghyun obviously didn’t understand, how could he – he was born a dumbass, so Aaron had to put it in the simplest terms for him.

“So hypothetically, if someone out of nowhere found themselves in a situation of suddenly wanting to shag the living shit out of someone who they’ve seen as their best friend all of their life, is that hypothetically possible?” He had spoken.

“Well, uhh.” Jonghyun cleared his throat and blinked his eyes to refresh his eyes. It felt as if a gush of dust had suddenly made them go all dry.

Jonghyuns voice began to sound he was reading off a slide during an exam presentation, except that if he really had to pee at the same time.

“Hypothetically, it doesn’t matter if this very hypothetical someone has always felt this way or is only discovering themselves now, because nothing can change the fact that this hypothetical person does feel very real hypothetical attraction and their hypothetical feelings will always be valid.” A nervous laugh escaped his mouth last, he hoped he had been understood.

“Woah, I have no idea what any of this means, but you sure sound smart Jonghyun. Maybe I was wrong about you!” Aaron placed a hand over his slightly relieved chest.

“Wrong—wrong about what?” Jonghyun was absolutely clueless, scratching a spot behind his own ear. 

By then Aaron had already finished everything he had wanted to say, and sank back down too deep into the same grim thoughts that plagued him to hear Jonghyuns question.

Jonghyun blinked his eyes away from his friend to recollect his thoughts too, suddenly remembering something crucial in what his friend had said. Aaron had heavily implied he had a thing for a best friend, but the guy only hanged out with just him, Mingi and Dongho these days. Then – who the hell could it be?

Jonghyun sat very awkwardly and waited before he soon opened his mouth, “Am I your best friend?”

“No, you idiot!” Aaron yelled, but then his voice instantly calmed and became more timid once he had realized that maybe saying that had been a bi harsh.

“You are a close second.” Aaron rest his elbow on his knee, slouched, staring off somewhere in front of him.

“Then, is Dongho a third?” Jonghyun was nervous, yet brave to continue asking. Aaron jolted up from his seat with an arched back elbow aiming directly for that pretty nose of his.

Before anything could escalate, some heavy foot stomps barged down the steps of the theatre. Whoever it was they were running like a beast that must of picked up their scent in the wind, and that someone was of course Kang.

He really wanted to speak to Aaron about something, however it seemed like Aaron was purposely avoiding him recently. Yet finally Dongho had found him as well as Jonghyun, so the guy didn’t hesitate to squeeze in the small gap between Aaron and Jonghyun. He pant from the run, leaning his short shoulder onto Aaron as if he were a seat.

The shortest man froze all motion, staring down at the top of his friends head that sat resting against his shoulder. He started to feel that heat rush through his veins and land in the pit of his stomach, leaving him with an unpleasant sensation of getting punched in the guts.

“I fucking found you guys.” Dongho breathed in relief, the stench of mouthwash oozing from his mouth. He was here after running down a whole staircase from the upper floor of the university and then navigating outside after being tipped off that Kwak had gone outdoors to mope.

“What’s the hurry? You are usually too busy to even come see us?” Jonghyun teased him a little. Dongho made a cute smile at his friend. 

“You know that is not true.” He acted coy.

Aaron glared at the two like they were hitting on one another or something, he instantly shrugged Dongho off himself to groan. Luckily neither of the other two understood the root of his jealousy.

However Aaron made it more obvious for himself when he began to angrily spit out remarks fuelled by envy at Dongho. “Did you come here to gush about your new boyfriend to us?” He barked, purposely staring away from the man he spoke to.

Dongho sucked in his lips and then released them with a pop, “Somewhat.” 

The thing was that he desperately needed an advice, a confirmation of sorts that would make him look less stupid in front of his pretend boyfriend. Aaron always gave him the best girl advice, so it only made sense he would come to him this time as well. After all, Aaron was still the only one who actually knew the truth from the start.

“Why would we want to hear about it?” Aaron yelled at him and right after almost comically sat up from his seat, his broken pride visible to everyone from about hundred miles away in every direction. He began to walk back.

Jonghyun and Dongho both leaned their necks back in sync as the guy hurried up the steps without listening to his friends whines for him to chill out and come back. When it got awkward just between the two of them, Jonghyun felt that he had to apologize on Kwaks behalf.

“Sorry, he is still sensitive since he just got out of a relationship.” Jonghyun gave his friend a nod and an awkward grin.

Dongho shrugged his heavy shoulders, regretful that the guy had left before he even had the chance to ask for an advice. Jonghyun saw him, “What were you going to ask anyways?”

Dongho shook his head and left it low, feeling a little hurt, “Nah, It’s about something that I wanted to hear from just Aaron.”

Jonghyun pout and scooted to sit closer to Kang, “You know, I am not clueless Kang. You can ask me too.” He spoke to the sky.

In tgat moment, Kang wished to bring up Minhyuns name. The name that made his heart speed like he was ill. Jonghyun would not understand, if Dongho told him the whole truth his friend would be so disappointed for being lied to. 

Had he gone crazy? – How could something like this happen to him, Dongho questioned himself. Now he guessed he would never know, his best friend wasn’t here to tell him.

Dongho breathed deep, “Jonghyun, how are you so chill about me going out with that guy out of nowhere?”

Jonghyun turned his face back at Dongho, his puzzled brows so low on his face that his friend could now see them from underneath his overgrown bangs. “To be honest I always thought you had a crush on Mingi.” He spoke.

Dongho thought his ears had deceived him, a distraught look coloured his face in pale. Jonghyun laughed.

“I was just kidding.” He turned his knees pointing them at Dongho who was sitting beside him. “Don’t derail, just tell me what is on your heart.” Jonghyun encouraged.

Dongho shrugged his head, deciding to instead take the matter into his own hands and deal with it him self. He sat up and did a small salute before running to chase after Kwak. For the rest of the day Aaron still managed to hide from him, so it was in vain.

Meanwhile Jonghyun stared ahead, watching the empty stage ahead of him now that he was all alone.

A curtain call had closed the night for Minhyun at the theatre. This time it was a mere practice play, so that meant he could go home earlier, as there were no fancy outfits made according to the era of the play that he would have to fear sweating in or spend half an hour just to get all the buttons undone for it.

He headed straight into the dressing room, exhausted and ready to head home for the night. He sometimes forget that once he’d return there would be someone waiting for him. 

Sneaky Kang would always occupy his bedroom bed when Minhyun turned up late, and not even thunder could wake that guy up while he choose to sleep in Minhyuns bed instead of the couch. He couldn’t wait to see that jerk do exactly as described once he got home this time too.

Inside of the chilly dressing room, he covered his shoulders with an oversized jacket, one best suited for gym workouts. His female friend Eunwoo quickly noticed the stained sleeves and loose threads dangling off its fabric. 

She snuck up, “Is that your boyfriends?”

“Yeah. He let me borrow it.” Minhyun spoke of the same jacket that he had stolen from Dongho this very morning. It was comfy and he liked how it smelled like – a little gross and unwashed, just like the guy who owned it.

Meanwhile, Eunwoo was afraid to touch it, she thought that Minhyun must really be weird to hold onto things like this. Her hand continued to hover over Minhyuns sitting shoulder, trying to decide to or not to try and touch it with her finger. A sudden knock on the closed dressing room door interrupted the pair.

Eunwoo instantly grabbed her hand to herself looking at the door to see who had come, Minhyun didn’t even look up, eyes glued to the screen of his phone. He didn’t intend to greet the guest, until two sneakers stood directly in front of his seat demanding to speak.

Once Minhyun had glanced up, hr knew he had seen that face somewhere before, but he couldn’t recall exactly where.

“Hwang Minhyun, I need to speak with you. It is important.” Aaron spoke with an intimidating voice. The first thing he noticed coming in was Donghos old jacket. Seeing it around Minhyun put flames into his eyes.

“Who are you?” The tall mans careless question made Aaron even more mad. 

“Don’t act like we haven’t met before. I am a friend of Kang Dongho, his best friend.” Aaron grunt, immediately putting a pleased smile on the face of the sitting man.

“Oh, so you are Donghos friend who has a crush on him!” Minhyun cheered.

“How did you—?” Aaron stuttered, unable to believe that Minhyun had read him so easily. The jerk snickered in response, “Dunno, I just guessed. Was I right?”

Another long silence ensued. Eunwoo was the first one to make her presence in the room known again by loudly clearing her throat, but the men wouldn’t budge. They were in midst of a heated stare down.

Minhyun had a shitty grin, one that looked like it was made to mock Aaron. While the other male wore the eyes of a an angry pitbull, fixated on Hwangs face he wanted to punch.

Only after Eunwoos eyes shot from left to right, up and down comparing the drastic difference in sizes of the two duelling men, she began to quietly tip toe her way out to avoid becoming a murder witness. The room door was shut closed again.

“We need to talk.” Aaron demanded for Minhyun to stand at least, but Minhyun felt cosy where he was. “About what?” Minhyun found this guy funny, he was a puppy trying to sound scary.

“It’s about Dongho.” Aaron had finally gained the others full attention.

“You need to stop playing around with that guy. I don’t know what you are trying to do to him, but it’s messed up.” Aarons claim shocked the other.

“Is this because you heard that we kissed? Come on dude. You said it yourself – it’s fake, simply an act – it shouldn’t concern you.” Minhyun teased him in attempt to try and get under the guys skin, because clearly he had become jealous.

“Exactly.” Aaron spat. “So, if you don’t intend on actually having him, then I will.” He threatened.

Suddenly the interest shown in Minhyuns eyes lit up even more. He decided to stand and towered miles above Aaron, smirking down on him as if the guy was someone small. 

“It’s Donghos choice to continue carry out this whole spiel with me. If you don’t like it then you should complain to him not me.” Minhyun waved Donghos stupid lie in front of Aarons face, warning him that he was meddling with their plan.

“Bullshit.” Aaron hissed, “He told me that he hates your guts.” Minhyun let out a small snicker, this guy was seriously late on the news. 

“If I peruse him, don’t try to intervene, got it?” Aaron gave him yet another deadly threat. 

Minhyun obediently nodded, pretending to understand. For him this could turn out very interesting to watch this go down.

“But why, I thought you guys had a sworn brotherhood thing going in?” Minhyun teased the short male, physically leaning in to sniffle Aaron out, assuming that the guy only had bad things in mind.

“Should it concern you?” Aaron spoke back. 

“Well, I don’t really care.” Minhyun shoved his phone in his pocket and started walking, “Go ahead and ask him out then, maybe he will surprise you.”

“Go ahead?” Aaron turned his whole body after Minhyun who had gone by after wishing him good luck, the shortest was beyond offended by that other pompous jerk.

He nodded to himself, gripping his fist up in the air. “Fine then. You fucking watch me.” Aaron spoke only to the door that had already opened and closed after the other man had left.

No matter how rich Minhyun apparently was, the size of his apartment was still tiny. According to the guy himself, he didn’t need anything grand because he was very simple, plus with a bigger house came bigger upkeep. Yet since Dongho had moved in the place had become cluttered. The newcomer had too much stuff he didn’t dare to throw away.

Because their shared space was now so small, Dongho was forced to look at Hwang all day long. Right now he sat tied to his phone, pretending to act busy with studying when all he did was actually browse online boards looking for mostly non violent ways to get rid of an intrusive roommate.

The guy sat on the floor where the fur carpet was, basking his back in the sunlight of the window shining on him from behind, and sometimes secretly dug his nose or scratched his crotch whenever Minhyun wasn’t looking.

The tallest was turned around while lovingly petting the clothes from last with a lint roller after he had worn them while hugging Dongho at the door after coming home last night. What was a hug for him, was a vicious battle to get his jacket back from Minhyun wearing it for the other.

The short man flashed his teeth towards the back of the same guy with despise, remembering how Minhyun often tend to act like he had forgotten that they don’t have to act like a real couple at home too. Sometimes Minhyun did everything on purpose to piss him off.

He sat there thinking why on earth would he ever like Hwang, there was nothing to like about him – he is mean, his laugh is annoying, and his pretty smile suits him so well, he is so charming whenever he does it.

“Fuck!— shit, damnit.” Dongho cursed out of nowhere after the dirty thought.

“Everything alright?” Moments later Minhyuns voice chimed in. “Yeah, just a stupid cramp.” Dongho lied.

The guy felt out of breath just by thinking about him, but being trapped in the same house as him all day gave Dongho no reason to think of anything else. Not even that bastard Aaron, supposedly his only friend, had called him to hang out once. That guy was probably going out with pretty girls left and right now that he had broken up, he most likely didn’t even remember about the poor sap Dongho.

Kang didn’t have too many other friends available anymore, everyone at school had kind of drifted off to focus on their studies. Dongho was stuck alone by himself.

As his phone battery flashed to low, his eyes set for Minhyuns laptop instead. There it was, abandoned and unsupervised on the mans bed. Dongho wondered if he could secretly install something on it so he could watch some illicit videos online to pass time, since he didn’t have a computer of his own.

Without much second thought, quiet as a mice he crawled, body leaned barely away from the floor like he was mimicking a snake in travel. He poked his eyes and nose first to see over the edge of the bed, his nostrils then twitched alert at the sight of the laptop sitting an inch away from him. He hooked his one knee onto the bed and carefully pulled himself in, connecting the earbuds to the laptop in a slight rush.

Suddenly he froze still, as another weight pressed onto the same bed making the screen of the now opened laptop tilt shut, behind it was the face of evil incarnate – Minhyun.

“Whatcha’ doing?” The tallest had sneaked onto the bed just as suspiciously, literally copying Dongho to figure out why he was doing this.

Dongho hadn’t even opened browser to begin typing on the computer yet, but he already felt ashamed for getting caught in middle of stealing a computer to watch porn. 

“Do you need help with studying?” Minhyun tilt his head, spawning a know-it-all-already kind of grin. 

The man had gotten so uncomfortably close to Dongho that just by the vibrations of his voice, the shortest twitched like his whole spine had just had a muscle spasm. Minhyun must of noticed it, he always had a keen eye for every single awkward thing that Dongho did in front of him.

“No,” Dongho suddenly turned defensive. “I don’t want to see you right now, so piss off.” He aimed mean words at Minhyun just to annoy him.

Minhyun acted hurt, doing a kissy pout at Dongho which was meant to look cute. Kang purposely averted his eyes scared of how it might actually work on him. 

“Am I really annoying you that much? I barely even mess with you.” Minhyun chuckled, still pretending to be offended.

“You are bothersome. I am sick of staring at you all day.” He ranted just to distract himself from thinking about the other man. To convince himself that maybe he wasn’t actually crashing down for him.

“Haven’t touched a girl in ages and—” Dongho continued to blame Minhyun, but his own mouth was shut by the other when that man had randomly leaned in to kiss.

Since Dongho was in middle of talking, his lips were already parted, it happened too quick. Yet the gravity pulled the two inwards and not apart, Donghos eyes had gently shut and he began to lead the kiss himself. The only thing stopping them from falling into each others arms was the laptop in between them serving as a barrier.

A minute had passed and Dongho had regained some of his senses and managed to pull himself away, he breathed heavy. “That is enough.” He had to physically hold himself from continuing this even though he wanted to. It was short, yet long enough to have his head all messed up.

While they were both resting, Minhyun broke into a lengthy laugh at how red Donghos face had become. Minhyun had never lost his cool, he was always so dauntless all the time, it made Dongho feel like he needed to step up.

“What were you gonna watch on the laptop? Should we watch it together?” His chuckle terrified Dongho. 

“I was trying to study, you fuck.” Dongho hinged his paws around it to shake the intrusive Hwang off from it.


	16. Chapter 16

When Minhyun made it home late again, he was expecting for Dongho to be out again for the night or laying on the couch with a blanket over his face so he wouldn’t have to hear Hwang unlocking the door.

Instead he was so surprised to find a light shining in the living room still at this hour, a little past midnight. It was a single small reading lamp that sat by the living room couch. On it, on top of a cushion, sat Dongho, his legs folded to fit his whole large build.

The man responsible said nothing, he only scared with those big round cat eyes of his. Minhyun had seen the man flinch. Avert his eyes and look guilty. Dongho looked like he really wanted to say something, but he only knew to look away again and it made Minhyun a little scared to know what the had had in mind.

Dongho was usually very blunt with stuff, but he had moments where he turned shy and hid his true thoughts, and this was one of those. Minhyun attempted to predict what that worried, puzzled look on the boys face meant. His head immediately ran to the conclusion that the guy must of had it, and Dongho was probably going to break up or something.

What else could possibly cause him to make that worried face – that had to be it. Minhyun didn’t know how to feel insecure, so his fears had instantly turned into certainty instead.

“Minhyun.” Dongho spoke in a weak trembling voice, like he had been thinking about this the whole day and night.

The tallest walked forwards into the room and removed his outdoor coat to place it down on a backrest of a chair. His body language showed that he was already fine with breaking up, even if it was so sudden, because after all, he knew it was bound to happen one day. He thought, their relationship was always fake from the start, they barely knew one another, so they could never be lovers.

While Minhyun stood there, static and trapped inside of his own scared mind, Dongho had suddenly stood up from the couch and charged at Hwang. Minhyuns heels barely managed to stay balanced on the floor when his torso accepted the weight of the mans crushing hug.

“You are hugging me?” Minhyun was shocked. “Yeah?” Dongho not so much.

“I think I know what this is already about.” Minhyun spoke while not looking down at the body tied around his chest. “You do?” Dongho looked up with a sad spark in his eyes.

“Yeah, kinda. I guess.” Minhyun didn’t want Dongho to know how much he didn’t want to end this just yet. Just one more day, or two days – he begged to no one.

Dongho instantly brightened up, “You are gonna help me with my homework?” He exclaimed, looking up at his friend with the fakest pout to show off how dark his eye circles were from studying.

Confused, Minhyun slowly pushed Dongho off for himself, eyes as wide as the moon that had been shining through his bedroom window. “Eh? What now?”

Dongho continued to ramble, “I know you are tired and its late, and you have to wake up early tomorrow – but I’ve literally been sitting here all day banging my head into the desk.”

Realizing his stupid, false guess, Minhyun narrowed his eyes and groaned annoyed, “You prick—ugh,” He spoke twice, “What is it?”

The other forced a smile, “Economics.” The tall man groaned even louder.

Dongho left him standing in the living room by charging to grab his pen and paper left on the bed, that he had already prepared for Minhyun to write on, clicking the pen ready for writing.

Minhyun stood there for a bit gripping his fists, watching Dongho from afar. He now realized how deep in shit he was by falling so hard for this moron – it felt like now he couldn’t live without him.

The tallest arrived and angrily snatched it from Kangs hands to sit on the bed without changing out of his clothes.

“Aw, yeah! You are really the best dude!” Dongho cheered in awe and admiration, never realizing the angry, yet love-filled look in Minhyuns eyes.

“Shut it or I won’t help you.” Minhyun glared. Dongho did an apologetic bow and scooted closer to him to show how fearful he was of the other mans wrath.

The tallest moved further in bed, laying the notebook in middle of the mattress and very slowly wrote everything down at a pace for Dongho to be able to catch up. Dongho had sprawled out like a cat trying to stretch his neck long enough to see Minhyun applying numbers to each given equation live to see how it was done so that he could change the numbers and do it himself later.

Dongho obsessively stared at the numbers appearing one by one on paper in pretty cursive. At one point Minhyuns hand stopped writing at the end of him drawing an equals sign, his hand held the pen for Dongho to finish himself.

Kang took the pen and arched his shoulder blades inwards trying to lean down to write the right answer. Minhyun checked what Dongho had put down and it was correct this time, finally only after Minhyun had shown him how.

Both of them weren’t talking while doing math in their heads. It had been a nice and quiet moment, it felt homely that way. Minhyun didn’t want to ruin it.

To award Dongho, instead of a vocal praise he pet the mans head, brushing the hair from the top of his forehead to back, not meaning too much by it. The shortest didn’t expect that touch, he quickly looked up to the guy who had done it and both of their eyes froze looking in their own glassy reflections.

Minhyun never thought he would end up liking Dongho this badly. Hell, Minhyun had even opened up to him already, he had never done that to anyone else, and Dongho still hadn’t fled from him yet, so maybe this all meant that the guy was actually accepting him.

Minhyun forgot about what he had been thinking before and leaned down to kiss Dongho on the forehead where he had previously swept back his bangs. Donghos immediate response was to jolt his chin up, accepting the kiss on his lips instead.

The shortest instantly realized, eyes wide what. he was doing. Why had he done that, why the fuck did he did that just now. Dongho repeatedly cussed himself out inside of his own mind once his brain had rewired itself to work right. It had to be the math – yeah, totally. The math had fucked up his rational thinking process.

The tallest instantly broke and went full force onto Dongho. He began to sit differently whilst lifting Dongho up so they could kiss evenly, but soon they were again laying down with Minhyun on top.

Dongho rest his head on top of Minhyuns arms that held his head up, placing his own hands onto Minhyuns slightly bent back that leaned down towards his face. Their embrace was quick and improper, they were out of breath so soon. Dongho was panting as soon as he pushed Minhyun away for a bit, like he had been starved of air, his lips already kissed deep red.

“Are we practising?” He asked in the most naive voice possible. Dongho obviously knew what this was, but felt more at ease pretending that he didn’t.

“We are practising.” Minhyun played along to give Dongho a boost of confidence. It worked.

Dongho dove Minhyuns head back low on himself with his hand on the neck, shutting his own eyes. Soon enough, he laid with his arms wrapped tight around the neck of the other man. Not only his own lips, but whole face was tortured with wet kisses.

Each and every time Minhyun returned to feed his needy mouth with his own, the man responded by tightening his already tensed fingers into the folds of Minhyuns shirt fabric, pulling the shirt up a bit from across his back. His toes had also curled up, heels dragging back in the sheets when he desperately wished to cross his own legs under the weight of the other man.

Meanwhile, Minhyun kept his long arms locked under Donghos head to restrict himself from accidentally jumping ahead. Although his own hands itched to touch Kang in all places, he feared his friend wouldn’t accept them so soon – allowing only kisses for now.

Eventually everything slowed after a while. The position and the act had been exhausting for the two of them. They lingered in a affectionate position of having the tips of their noses barely touching, while collecting each others breaths of steam onto their faces.

The tallest began to gradually sit himself up, even thought his every cell of being was yelling at him to stay laying there. The man below him looked dire, sweaty and sore, as if his body was recovering after immense workout. Dongho was fucked, so fucked the more he thought about Minhyun who was staring down at him with such a stare.

He liked that annoying bastard, how the hell was this even possible. Dongho suddenly hid his face behind his sobbing palms, pretending to cry into his own hands out of pure frustration. Minhyun laughed out loud at the adorable display, he covered Donghos hands with his own at first and then after cupping them, he removed them to make the man look at him again.

Both of them had the same idea to go back to where they had left off, yet neither of them voiced it, one being more shy than the other. But that wish was always there in the air and it was now obvious for the both of them.

Finally, Minhyun took the initiative, using one finger as a hook to play with the hem of Donghos shirt in front of his stomach. It already laid in a place where a gap showing his shy tummy could be seen, his shorts had gone low beyond the guard of his hips while Dongho had been squirming earlier.

Donghos eyes became as shiny as coins. He winced and made an uncertain nod. “You do it too then.” Dongho didn’t want to feel alone, undressed in the cold. Yet he was too clueless to realize what that would actually mean if Hwang got out of his clothes too.

Minhyun quickly chuckled over it and obliged. As soon as he angled his elbows to lift his own shirt, Dongho began observing him with same type of eyes he would give any tasty food on the counter.

Minhyuns skin was so consistent everywhere, not a single place with a blemish or a scar in sight. It was so clean it would be like a sin to touch or stain it with his hands. Minhyun looked like a painting rather than a man, wide shoulders on top of a narrow frame, the perfect body, all to accommodate for his extremely large head.

Why the fuck did he have to tell Minhyun to undress too. Where was he even going with that – Kang blamed himself.

“Hey, what are you staring at me like that for?” Minhyun laughed, his shirt that he had just removed still tied around his wrists. Dongho had looked away as if just by looking he could somehow harm his eyes.

“We are both dudes after all.” In a sultry, sweet voice Minhyun reminded the shy man, throwing the dirty shirt outside the bed.

Kang had no clue why he couldn’t force himself to look that way. He was never like this before, in front of girls he had never felt so insecure as he did before Hwang. “It is complicated.” Kang snort.

“Is it because you are scared that you might like what you see a little too much?” Minhyuns laugh instantly made Dongho look. “Hey, it isn’t at all like that!” Dongho defended himself.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind you staring at me.” After Minhyun said it, Dongho inhaled deep through his nostrils and made a sound with his tightly sealed mouth that sounded something like a steaming water kettle going off. Perhaps that was a supressed angry scream.

Yet his temper fell off as soon as Minhyun made his hands stand on his stomach. His fingers folded like claws and both hands rode up and across his chest. Dongho winced, Minhyuns nails were sharp and the fabric pulling up that fast up burned a little.

As soon as the shirt had travelled up to his neck, his chest, bruised bright pink, popped out from being harshly dragged under the fabric, sore and irritated quickly. His torso was wide. Tensed muscles made him look more exercised than he was, his chest was firm yet it stuck out a little as well.

“Hey, you are staring too!” Dongho accused Minhyun of what was true. “I am just getting even.” He grinned.

Minhyuns eyes went wide at the sight of the tattooed skin, his hand didn’t wait to cup the firm round muscle of the chest into the palm of his hand and to see how it would fit. With both of his hands he gently squeezed the skin that felt baby smooth.

“Ow!” Dongho squirmed, “That hurts, you jerk.” It was barely even anything, he was being a total wuss.

“I can’t help it when you are being this adorable.” Minhyun pretended to be worried. He already knew that Kang wouldn’t say no to him at this point. The guy was so close to finally cracking.

Dongho thought for a minute and nod his head. Why was he even allowing this prick, Dongho was upset with himself and did not even wish to think about the answer to his own question.

Minhyun laughed at his next little yelp. “You are so cute Dongho. You sound like a squeaky toy.” He gazed in awe as the man below him continued to make a sound each time he fondled with him without an escape. The guy had a remarkably low pain tolerance.

“Don’t say these kinds of things to me, you creep.” Dongho finally snapped at the man he felt had been bullying him by saying all of this embarrassing stuff that made him sweat.

Donghos next pained whine was shortly replaced by a gasp, his head thrown to the side. Minhyun had pushed him down with all of his weight by laying on top of him. He finally pressed his lips into the side of Donghos neck. The shortest whined once more at the weird sensations of Minhyun holding down the stretched row of tensed muscles in his neck. Turns out he was easily ticklish too.

It slowly dawned on Dongho that overtime this was no longer just mild messing around. They were really moving forwards and fast. Minhyun was hovering him, shirtless and all. So he suddenly became afraid.

When Minhyun tugged his crooked fingers behind Donghos waistband is when the guy jolt up. Slowly Minhyun distanced his face away from the crook of Donghos neck, looking at the guys expression from the corner of his eye and it became evident that they probably wouldn’t get much further this time around.

All of a sudden Dongho felt sorry, his large arms clung around Minhyuns narrow frame and crushed him down into a hug. The powerful grab made Minhyun lose balance, both of them tumbled and rolled onto their sides facing one another.

Everything settled down, the time became slower while they remained motionless locked in an embrace. Minhyun decided to laugh, “Is this enough practice for you?”

Dongho was too shy to admit the truth. Looking at Hwang up close was making him feel many things he didn’t wish to admit.

“Everything alright?” Minhyun didn’t like the sound of silence. “Yeah, it’s fine. It’s just that—” Dongho took a breath, “I feel a bit weird.”

Indeed, the man was panting heavily, his face looked pained. Minhyuns smile had stopped once he realized why Dongho had insisted that they stop playing around like that.

His eyes slowly scanned down, from Kangs sweaty neck to his slowly raising and falling chest – to his still exposed tummy and then his thighs that nervously pressed and squirmed in place.

Donghos feelings were unclear, but he still wanted to continue regardless. He really didn’t want to say it, he didn’t want to admit it yet but his body was begging for Minhyun to touch him right now to the point he felt like crying.

Minhyuns previous expression was replaced by even more worry, “Its fine, I’ll take care of it for you.” He reassured Dongho to not feel bad.

“Wait. You don’t have to.” Dongho didn’t want to make his friend feel like he was obliged to anything. Minhyun started to chuckle, “You think I don’t want to?”

“No. I mean—fuck.” Dongho cursed at Minhyun instead after failing to think of the right words to say in this situation. Minhyun laughed at the cuss, knowing Dongho was just as stressed about this as he was.

Then the tall man disappeared from the sight of the other and Dongho missed him dearly, he tried to rise up to see where he had gone, but by that time he had already returned. Minhyun had gotten another layer of duvet and pulled it over both of their heads to make everything dark.

Dongho couldn’t see, so he was anxious, but Minhyun was there next to him so again he felt calm. Under that cover, Minhyun hugged him and again tried to reach for that same waistband again where the problem laid.

Since Minhyun couldn’t see him or his expression in the dark at all, Dongho let him do it. A small yelp made its way out of his mouth when enduring the sudden warm touch. The guy was absolutely rock hard just from kissing earlier, as soon as Minhyun made the first full stroke he drooled with wet. The hand began stroking quickly without waiting around. The unexpected jolts of what felt like small volumes of electricity dancing under his skin made Dongho wish to curse and groan, his hands raised to stuff his own mouth by biting into the shirt that he still had rolled up to stop it.

Minhyun had stuck to him so close under the covers that his jerking hand would keep slapping into his own thighs at times. It was becoming hot under the duvet like they were in a tent or rather a greenhouse. Everything quickly became a sweaty, low oxygen populated blur.

Dongho tried to keep his whines tiny, so quiet that not even the guy laying next to him could hear them. But Minhyun was hearing everything and it made him lose his mind. The shirt that the man had once bit in his mouth was now wet in between his gritted teeth. His hips were working against Minhyun by trying to thrust into the hand, even though it meant that Hwang had no space to even move his wrist.

The tallest compensated for the limited movement by leaning his head forwards and legs back, his mouth pressed to Donghos cheek, blindly searching in the dark for his earlobe. He found it, and he also soon found the piercing in it with his lips.

Dongho whined louder through the wet shirt in his mouth feeling Minhyun slick his tongue around the shell of his outer ear. He was so sensitive to the slightest bit of pain, that even the tiniest contact with teeth made him squirm. Minhyun knew that, and he found that so adorable about him.

He risked it by taking the mans piercing between his teeth, carefully twirling it back and forth. Dongho whined and shot his eyes wide, he felt more close to his release the more Minhyun kissed him. With that, Minhyun moved his hand more viciously, eager to please the other man. Dongho was previously burning as hot as a furnace, but now all of his body heat seemed to pool away from his fingers and toes.

He twitched and fought, finally he let the chewed fabric in his mouth free to speak, “I’m gonnah—” He was interrupted by his own hiccup.

Minhyun already knew, Dongho was seizing and leaking all over his hand. Strings of wet hanged from in-between the fingers and left nasty stains in the sheets.

Minhyun whispered a, “Don’t hold back.” directly into the same ear that he had been torturing. Dongho twitched and the immediate response to hearing Minhyun speak to him that way was to release.

Dongho said a profanity out loud while his mouth had not been gagged. His tummy shook upwards as he came gushing over Minhyuns stomach that had been so close to him. The other man continued to touch his warm body, brush his hand over the arms and thighs to ease all the tensed muscles until Dongho would land from the cloud he was on.

When it all had ended, instead of pushing away they pulled each other even closer. Minhyun gave Dongho a comforting hug in case he was about to crash down around and hit the blues. He seemed okay, and he definitely didn’t regret it.

Yet even if Minhyuns hug was so lovely and calming, Dongho still couldn’t fall asleep in his arms. Every nerve in his body was still on fire and there was nothing to put them out. He moved his arms further inside of Minhyuns grip, and in that same darkness he looked for the front of Minhyuns pants to return the same favor like last time.

“Don’t do that.” Minhyun surprised him with a warning. “Why not?” Donghos voice sounded so damn innocent that Hwang almost felt bad for saying the next thing that flew out of his mouth.

“If you touch me right now, I think I won’t be able to hold myself from doing you.” Minhyuns light hearted advice made Dongho nervously chuckle. He hesitated not pulling his hand back away for a solid three seconds, but then still reluctantly retreated for now.

Minhyun grunt in his sleep, his eyeballs were twitching and moving under his shut eyelids. After he had already decided to stay laying here with Dongho instead of going anywhere else. After a while it seemed like he had really managed to fall asleep.

“Um, Minhyun?” Dongho spoke after a while, his voice lower than a whisper. “Yeah?” Minhyun woke up again and nodded his head down.

“What is gonna happen to us once we get found out? It will happen eventually, people aren’t actually that stupid to believe us forever.” Dongho really worried about the strangest things at the strangest times.

Minhyun thought about that a lot too these days. “What do you think would happen?” He turned the question back around.

Donghos shoulders shrugged in the dark, “Everyone that I have lied to would feel hurt that I would go behind their backs. My friends would not talk to me and my aunt would put me on the street.”

“I am sure you can live with your other close friends for a while.” Minhyun tried to cheer him up. In the dark, his eyes became narrow and sly before his next set of words, “Like Aaron for example.”

Dongho thinned his lips while thinking and after a while he spoke for the first time, “But I want to stay with you.”

Minhyun felt a pang hit his chest. Why did Dongho have to say it like that, he thought, because it hurt so sweet.

“Is it because nobody is making you do chores in this house?” Minhyun tried to play it off cool.

There was never a response. Dongho was unsure, he was attached to his new friend, but at the same time it was very evident that now he cared for the guy more than just simply a friend.

But right now his brain was a confused mess. All of this pretending got Dongho confused about how much of it was actually real. Minhyun was a good actor, a little too good. He was in fact so convincing that the things he said or did, that were all part of the act, still made Donghos heart move, he felt like a fool.

The room under the hot duvet remained silent for the rest of the night. Two heartbeats sounded loud like a drum coming from underneath the sheets that draped over those two warm bodies stacked on one another until the break of dawn.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> epic bro moment incoming

Today Aaron walked with a slight slump towards the cafeteria table where he soon recognized his friends already sitting and hanging out without him. As always it was the same trio – the only students in the university who weren’t fucked enough to actually study right before the next upcoming test today. Just seeing their smiley faces this morning alone filled Aaron with feelings of anger and misery.

“Aaron help!” Mingis cry reached his ears before he was even near an empty seat. “Dongho is eating really weird! He is scaring Jonghyun!” The man was loud.

Judging from Donghos whine this argument had probably lasted long before Aarons arrival. “How am I eating weird? I always eat like this!” He held up a yellow apple which was already bit out of in his hand with.

“Who the hell closes their eyes before opening their mouth to bite a damn apple!” Mingi sat there scared, covering Jonghyuns precious, virginal eyes from such an obviously lewd act.

“Why on earth does it matter? You guys are just sick!” Dongho argued with his friends, implying they were all perverts projecting their vile thoughts upon him.

Since Minhyun was Donghos very first boyfriend ever, they had been making all sorts of weird assumptions about him recently. Today that bastard Kim Jonghyun had even dared to say that he had never seen Dongho being so happy when coming in to school for classes, Kang wanted to rip his head off for it. Its like everyone somehow knew what him and Minhyun had done last night.

Dongho was too stuck on arguing that he had not yet noted Aaron had sat beside him already. His throat dropped some decibels recognizing the shoulder of his long lost friend pulling up. “Oh, hey.” He said.

Only seconds passed of Dongho looking at Aaron, but the breath of the shortest man was magically gone. No matter how much he tried to distance himself from this bastard and then come back after a while, the result was always the same. He just couldn’t stop liking his dumb best friend.

He kept staring at Donghos facial details like he was reading a painting, the time slowed down and everything else in the world just kind of disappeared around them – the only thing that existed were Donghos pout lips that got pulled into the prettiest grin.

Aaron woke up from it as soon as those bright eyes looking back at him had darted away, they went as quickly as they had come, attracted by the voices of his friends. Time returned back to normal and Aaron felt dazed.

The conversation at the table moved on to mundane things, things that Aaron couldn’t bring himself to ever care about.

Soon Dongho was got up to leave the rest of his boys behind, and without a word Aaron instantly got up to follow him. Of course, this wasn’t left unnoticed by the keen eyes of the two others. In order to pass a rumour whisper, Mingi had leaned his ear closer to Jonghyun.

“Aren’t those two acting a little strange around each other?” Mingi disguised gossip as a concern.

“More so Aaron. He seems worried for his friend.” The soft spoken man stared into the distance eyes following Aaron until he became only a blurry shape in Jonghyuns vision.

“Or maybe he is jealous?” Mingi suggested, bouncing his shoulders trying to be cute, “Haha–Just kiddin’.” Jonghyun smiled at his friend, but his thoughts began to dwelling on it. 

It wasn’t an easy task to catch up with the athlete Kang, especially for Aaron who’s joints weren’t as good as they once used to be back in his youth. A voice from behind made Dongho jolt up his heels trying to brake.

He turned to look back to face Aaron standing behind him. “Dongho, can we talk?” He spoke.

The look on his face was slightly different than usual, it was a worried and a bit scared look. The carefree and playful guy now glared at him with the most serious expression. Only one thought raced to Donghos pea sized brain – Minhyun.

Dongho instantly thought to himself, “Shit, could he know already?” However, if that was the case and Aaron was suspecting him of liking Minhyun, then he might as well just tell him at this point.

“Yeah, I’ve got something to tell you too actually.” He swung an arm to itch the nape of his neck.

Kwaks pupils shrunk to small watching his friends arm place on the neck. Today Dongho had been repeatedly picking his neck that same way. Aaron had only now noticed such a thing, there was a red spot where he had kept subconsciously itching. He could only hope that it wasn’t Minhyuns doing, because if that jerk had been somehow hurting Dongho, Aaron swore he would kill the guy.

“Can we talk about it after the test today?” Aaron suggested, afraid and hands all clammy. He had finally decided to confess to Dongho on this day, as well as ask him out perhaps – rid him from needing Minhyun for once and for all.

To meet him afterschool would meant that Dongho would have to probably have to skip his gym practice. Not like he was going to go in today anyways since his body had developed rashes in the most unimaginable places since last night.

“Sure thing buddy.” Dongho continued to scratch, “Is it important?” He wanted to know first, since Aaron looked so shaken already. It had to be serious business.

“I can’t tell you right now, I can’t do this right before the test.” Aaron apologized. His lips drew thin and after a silent second Dongho had asked something else.

“You look—upset? Did anything bad happen?” Dongho worried that his first guess could have been wrong.

“N—no.” Aaron lied. “Can I just hug you for a bit?” He had asked for permission, but he didn’t even wait to receive it, instead he was already arms tight around the sides of the other man.

The taller reacted to the sudden hug by wincing because he had no clue that Aaron had gotten this strong lately, “You are heavy.” Donghos voice implied pain and struggle.

“Lord, you are too.” Aaron spoke with hearts in his eyes, chin tilt over Donghos tall shoulder. He held his breath fearing inhaling the manly musk of the other muscular male which would instantly cause him to pass out, if not at least give him a puny.

Dongho just awkwardly pat his back until his touchy friend had pulled away. The guy apologized before claiming that he had to run off to some imaginary lecture.

“How much time are you going to take before I need to pick you back up?” Minhyun rushed Dongho to answer, slightly annoyed.

The two sat together in one car, Minhyun had only agreed to pick up Dongho from school to their home and not drive him around to whenever he pleased as if he were the guys mom.

Dongho had not even told him the purpose of this ride aside from the desired destination. He awkwardly grinned at the other hoping his smile alone could buy him out of trouble. The thing was he had lost all of his public transport cards, decades ago. It was almost like those pesky jeans pockets had small black holes in them.

“An hour or so. I can just text you when I want to head home.” Dongho happily suggested only to lose his spirit once he heard Minhyun sigh.

The traffic wasn’t that good, especially later in the day. Minhyun wasn’t going to just drive from here all the way back to home only to have to return for Dongho almost instantly.

“Are you sure I can’t just tag along with you?” He whined. “No!” Dongho almost aggressively spat out, “It’s personal. I am seeing a friend there.”

Minhyun had been upset at Dongho over this for the whole ride and Dongho had already known he would be upset. How could he not feel used, when the guy couldn’t even specify why he had to hide Hwang away from his friends, he had thought that they were friends too.

Dongho felt bad, and he swore that he actually didn’t have anything against him. Dongho just didn’t want the guy to be around while he was confessing about having a crush on him to Aaron.

Dongho pulled out his cracked phone and tilted the screen away just so Minhyun wouldn’t see what was on it. The big guy was sitting there, shoulders pulled in, phone an in away from his face. Minhyun glared in disappointment – it looked like the guy had more secrets to hide, Dongho was shsmeless.

As soon as Dongho had stopped touching the screen, Minhyuns phone made the loudest buzz. Donghos eyes suddenly went small when it had became horrifically obvious that he had texted Minhyun just now.

The car began to slow stopping at a long line in front of the red light that had just come on. The hand of the driver reached to unlock his own phone and see what had been sent to him, Dongho watched and began to panic.

“You really shouldn’t use the phone while driving? Ha-ha.” He begged with desperate eyes. Minhyun didn’t care, the car was standing still and there were seven cars in front of him.

Minhyun flicked his wrist to reach for the phone. Dongho was frantically giggling out of fear, “Hey, I didn’t want you to open it right now. Maybe you can look at it later, please?”

Donghos whine stretched long and at the end turned into a stressed “Oh, fuck.” Seeing Minhyun not listening and unlock his phone in a split second.

The driver gathered his eyebrows together to understand what he was looking at, “Dude, did you just send me your nudes?”

“I wanted to cheer you up!” Dongho defended himself as if he was the victim here.

“Please, don’t tell me this is how you cheer up women via text as well?” Minhyun stared at his screen baffled and offended.

He was looking at a bathroom mirror selfie of the guy posing proud in his beach swim trunks, slightly in the background you could see Jonghyun with snorkelling gear on his face, longingly sitting on the toilet through the slight parted door of the bathroom stall.

Minhyun dimmed the phone and looked back at the line of cars that hadn’t moved an inch. His eyes had turned dry, since opening the text he hadn’t blinked once.

“No I don’t! I just thought that you might like it maybe.” He rant while his face had gone three shades more red that just a second ago.

“You can’t be serious.” Minhyun mocked the other. “Well, I can’t unsend it now!” He whined and pout.

Minhyun tried to, but he really couldn’t stay mad at this silly idiot for any longer. He hid a chuckle behind the back palm of his hand. Dongho’s hearing was sharp, he had heard it and looked, but decided not to say anything, but he was glad.

The car had exited the main highway and drove down to a busy road closer to the cities main river. Minhyun began looking for places to park, but it all seemed fenced off near the river. Dongho unbuckled prematurely.

“I’ll just hop out here!” He instructed for the other guy to just pause on the side of the road.

“Hng.” Minhyun did so and watched him run off.

Seabirds sang songs from faraway, the loud city and passing cars sounded distant and quiet on the shore of river that rode past in calm waves. Dongho stared up at the sky that was still bright, his hands got sticky from holding a spilled can of beer that he had got for himself, but was slow on emptying.

He remembered this place, the exact same spot where him and his cousins once had a picnic together – Minhyun was there that time too. Back then the weather was warmer, and he didn’t have to wear so many layers of coats.

He didn’t let the fuzzy reminiscent feelings overtake him, and snapped out of his thoughts about that guy, he no longer feared of having invade his daydreams.

Dongho sat on small steps leading down from the park walkway to the edge drop of the river. Beside him on those concrete steps with him sat Aaron. Just like him the guy was armed with a can of beer.

“You never call to meet up anymore, I thought you forgot about me.” Dongho complained to his friend.

Aaron chuckled, “How could I ever forget you?” Dongho turned to smirk at him, meeting sly eyes with the other. “When did you ever get this corny with me?” Dongho poked fun at his obviously smitten friend.

Aaron wanted to laugh at the joke right back like always, but today he didn’t have the stomach for it. Before coming out here he had promised to himself to finally put an end to this, to confess all or nothing.

“Has there been anything bothering yourself lately?” Aaron decided to brown nose a bit first. Dongho had to think.

Dongho used to feel troubled before, but now not as much. He had almost become content. Suddenly Aaron was reminded how his friend was probably thinking of Minhyun in, and regretted brining it up.

“I’ve made a fool of myself Aaron.” He sighed.

Aaron arched his thick brows, throwing a glance at his friend. “That whole fake story about you dating, huh?” He had guessed it.

Donghos face instantly twisted, to Aaron it looked like Dongho was upset over it and it would only make sense if he was. Keeping up that lie was hard.

The shortest felt pity for him, “Just drop it already. Tell people the truth and be done with it.” He took a large sip.

He got a smile from the other, but in that moment, Kangs smile wasn’t radiating off much happiness like it always had before. Dongho understood that if the truth is revealed, then it would mean that him and Minhyun would finally be over and he didn’t want for them to be over yet.

Dongho laughed with a shrug, “It’s not that easy.”

The other man didn’t quite understand, but he still nodded to reassure his friend. They both once again stared off into that river where the sun was soon to be swallowed by the big skyscrapers on the other side of the blue river.

It was already sinking quickly. It was time. Aaron had to take another quick sip, as he felt the big reveal of him telling Dongho that he thinks he loves him was coming up soon.

He finally turned to face him. “Dongho, I got something to tell you man.” Aaron crushed the emptied can in his hands as a way to put away his stress.

“I got some things to tell you too, you’re not special.” Dongho laughed at the way Kwak sounded so serious all of a sudden. The shortest ignored him and took a deep breath before speaking. His eyes shot away focused at the river.

“As you could probably tell already, I like you Dongho.” His voice came out quickly, everything at once.

A moment passed and Kang stood quiet, so Aaron repeated once more, “I have feelings for you.”

Dongho, who was just in the middle of drinking, quietly let the beer fall out of his mouth and suck right back into the can. Aaron turned to face Dongho, forcing eye contact for what he was about to say next. He had it brewing inside of him for literal days now.

He began to quote, “I know you have no reason to respond and it would be hard for you to ever view me as something other than just your best friend, but I want to have a chance.”

Aaron put on the most sincere voice he had, “You could just break up with that other guy and instead continue with me.”

Meanwhile, Dongho was just so confused right now, he still hadn’t even fully processed the first four words of what Aaron had even said. Donghos hesitation and lack of response was making Aaron afraid, and like just like during all the other times he was scared, he grabbed to hold on Donghos hands.

“Whut?” Dongho realized he hadn’t been listening clearly enough to catch the most of that aside from the initial confession, which still wasn’t quite clicking for him either.

“I want to date you. Dump Hwang and go out with me.” Aaron rephrased, bringing his face closer to Donghos which didn’t at all dare to pull away.

The other boy silently stared, until the most damned thing rolled right off his tongue, something Aaron didn’t expect to hear.

“Did you perhaps have any more beers before you came out?” Dongho narrowed his brows in suspicion.

“Huh? No?” Aaron tried to speak the truth, but Donghos untrusting expression wouldn’t go away.

Just before anything else could be explained, a rude, “Ehem.” sound had interrupted them both from behind. The two shot their eyes back to see who it was.

There in his full length stood Hwang Minhyun himself, arriving a bit too early to pick up Kang. The guy tapped his foot looking at the two friends sharing an odd moment, interrupting them like it was done on purpose.

Dongho and Aaron both looked from Minhyun to back at one another. Aaron was the first one to begin whispering, “Why did you bring that guy here?” He gritted his teeth to mask his anger.

“I didn’t!” He swore, before pausing on something, “Wait, why am I not allowed to bring him?” Dongho felt the need to defend Minhyun.

“I didn’t want him here, you fuck. Tell him to leave and that we are busy!” Aaron continued to whisper despite Minhyun standing right above him, raising a brow and tilting his head at his words.

Dongho suddenly stood up and ran up to Minhyun to claw his paws into the guys sleeve.

“The two of us came together!” He lied to Aaron, after briefly looking up at Minhyun trying to ask him why the fuck had he come back so soon with pained expressions.

Minhyun had literally just found a place where to park and come over here on foot. He didn’t feel sly or smug about it, he gave Dongho a static look.

Aaron stared at the pair for a bit and then decided he had to stand up from sitting too. His face became as stiff as a stone, eyes locked on Donghos hand that had somehow found its new spot on Minhyuns sleeve where it didn’t belong.

“I wanted to properly introduce you two to each other. Minhyun is my friend now.” Dongho came up with mire excuses, forcing Aaron to greet Hwang, but there was no way in hell that he would.

“Really? I thought you said that you hated this guy and wanted to murder him the last time I asked.” Aaron spoke out of spite, looking directly into the face of his cockblocker.

Dongho was too shy to explain how exactly their caring friendship had developed now that it was all three of them. In fact he didn’t want to even think about half of those details, but all that mattered was that Minhyun was important to him now, and he wished his friend saw it too. After all that is what he had come here to say.

Dongho answered, “Character development?” He was grinning, bopping his shoulders in place as if he was only guessing.

Just then the tallest spoke, extending his open hand at Kwak, “Oh hey, it’s nice meeting you for the very first time.”

Minhyun was smirking at Aaron who’s fists instantly gripped tight. “Are you seriously going to say that every time we meet?” Aaron growled.

“He is just joking!” Dongho smiled as hard as he could, while painfully elbowing Minhyun standing by his side as punishment. “Right?” He showed his actual fear in his eyes for a split second.

Aaron crossed his arms to hide his clenched fingers ready to claw at anyone’s eyes. He viewed Dongho who was still dangling onto Minhyuns jacket sleeve like a lost kid, “You guys don’t have to act like an old couple in front of me. I already know everything.”

His comment, had upset Dongho. “We are not acting like a—!”

The tallest was already looking at him with the most judging stare. It seemed that if Dongho said anything out of place right now, then that bastard Hwang would just spill the beans out of spite, and let his best friend know exactly about how often they give hand jobs to one another.

Suddenly his tensed eyes became distracted by the sight of a family of overfed seagulls slowly cruising down the shore of the river in the distance.

The stressed out, slightly intoxicated and wishing to escape this situation, Dongho seriously didn’t know any better. He jolt, “Holy shit, are those swans?”

The two rivals stopped to watch Kang dig into his pockets, and smile in relief after he had found some stale slices of carrot from the schools caffiteria, which he had instinctively bought to the river in case he got to see any hungry river birds. The two others would watch him clumsily wail forwards the shore.

While Dongho was in the distance, Minhyun mocked the short man, “You sure are quick, huh?”

“Quick? What do you mean?” Whenever Aaron tried to act angry he only managed to sound whiny. Minhyun smirk and point his chin at the idiot in front of them still slowly waddling and hopping down the steps.

“It hasn’t been long since you told me that you were going to ask him out. Are you that confident he will instantly agree, or are you just scared that he will go to someone else in less than a day?” Minhyun teased him with a smile.

“Listen here, I don’t like your tone.” Aaron point his shaky finger into the direction of the other man.

Minhyun ignored him, instead fixing his eyes on Dongho doing a drowsy flail at the seagulls that stood in the distance. There was no way an adult man could be this excited about some birds.

He winced his eyebrows down and spoke, “Did you guys drink beer together?”

“It was just light beer.” Aaron cursed himself for not realizing sooner how lightweight the big guy was. Dongho had claimed that he was trying to build up immunity against alcohol, Aaron should have listened and known something was off right then.

Just then they witnessed the poor guy catch a bad slip on the slope that lead down to the river, the next moment he was slow falling to the ground like a toddler just learning to walk. Unfortunately all the birds had flown, frightened by him.

Neither of the two reacted, they just lowered their brows and stared in judgement. That was until shortly Aaron blurt something out, “Three second rule.”

The race was on – the two men ran ahead of one another to see which one would be the first to help Dongho stand. Both of them landed next to Dongho on either side of him taking the his each elbow into their hold.

“Are you hurting?” Dongho was surprised to hear two voices ask the same question at the same time. Indeed he was hurting, yet at the same time he had never felt so cared for in his entire life. Maybe he should just start falling more often.

“I need to check him for scratches.” Aaron pulled Dongho by his closer to him, the guy tumbled and fell into his chest.

Minhyuns eyes lit up like he was watching someone steal his prey. He wouldn’t let go of Kang, he did the same Aaron did, but from the other side.

He told, “I’ll just take him to a vet.” Now Aaron and Minhyun were already both shooting lasers at one another with their eyes.

Dongho had to interrupt both of them after he had to hiccup. “I think I’m gonna throw up.” He soon gagged.

Everyone instantly jumped off from him, letting him land on his hands once more. The guy hiccupped again, “False alert.” This time Minhyun didn’t mind Aaron going ahead and dusting his friend off from the ground, disgusted by these antics.

“I’ll go get him a band aid.” Minhyun sighed in defeat. “I have first aid back in my car, I’ll be fast if I jog.” Minhyun could only trust for Kang to not be in love with another man by the time he comes back.

Dongho shrugged acting fine, “I am not even hurt!” He stood on his tippy toes to appear tall and healthy. But that horrible sting in his ass on which he had landed on spoke otherwise.

He tried to follow Minhyun as the guy walked away, but his steps were so tiny Aaron could catch up to hold him back by the shoulder in two steps.

The way Dongho looked at Minhyun as the guy walked off reminded Aaron of himself. In regret he realized the grim reality – he liked Minhyun, thus trying to persuade him would be a waste of time.

Aarons voice woke Dongho up from his dreamy state. “You like that bastard don’t you?”

Donghos pupils suddenly bloomed to huge, but he stayed silent. Aaron took that as the confirmation that he needed, “Fuck, so I was right.”

The other man turned to him by stomping his feet in place like a needy kid, “Hey, you know I didn’t mean to!” He acted angry at himself for it.

Aaron didn’t want to ask how it had happened, he guessed that all of this acting and pretending had probably taken a big toll on Dongho, to the point where he had actually started to believe all that shit himself.

“So you are dating him for real now?” Aaron shrugged. Donghos delayed reply sounded rather quizzical, “No?”

“Why not?” Aaron turned on him this time, Dongho could only blink pretty, “Sh—should I?”

“If you like him then just go out with him, damnit. Don’t make this any harder for me.” Aaron had gritted his teeth, pretending to ball up his fist in front of the martial arts trainee, fearless.

“Harder for you? How?” Donghos clueless state seriously wasn’t helping Aaron not want to punch him any less.

He groaned, but he was unable to make his confession for the second time. “Forget about it. Just follow him to his car already.” The short guy twisted his heels towards the path to home.

Just like that, Aaron stormed off, by hiding his heartbroken self behind a veil of false anger that way Dongho could never find out.

Surely Dongho didn’t have a clue, he assumed his friend was simply disappointed in him, so he let the guy go and with the saddest face, awaited Minhyun to bring him home.


	18. Chapter 18

The ride in the elevator back up to their apartment was long and silent, Dongho glanced up at the ceiling light of the elevator while waiting, to be different than Minhyun who was counting the floor numbers go up.

The short man rest his arms by holding onto a pole handle running alongside the walls of an elevator. Minhyun stood on the opposite side, leaning against the wall. They had not said much since they had gotten out of the shared car.

They had just come back from a club, had hanged out with Minhyuns weird acquaintances and even danced together that night. Dongho had checked his phone a minute ago, everyone they had met that time was now posting online about the cute couple seen at the club. It was another mission successful of pretending.

It would have never worked this well unless Dongho had not been hitting on Minhyun back the same way his partner in crime did. Thus, back there it was a friendly competition of who could make the most corniest jokes and pickup lines at each other. However, Minhyun always won by making Dongho accidentally blush at the stupidest ones. 

The sweet things the tall man had told Dongho would for some reason linger in his mind for a long time. It wasn’t just acting now, it had never been and they both knew.

Dongho tried not to act awkward in front of Minhyun, he feared that he was starting to get a little too obvious. Minhyun however had always watched Dongho from the very start, so he already had a clue. Of course, Kang wasn’t going to admit to anything before putting up a fight.

Right before the elevator had reached the right floor, Dongho dared to ask knowing he wouldn’t get a chance to late, “Minhyun, did you mean any of that, the things you said back there?”

The tallest had to pause. At first Minhyun didn’t get what the guy was referring to, but then after figuring it out, he ambiguously shrugged his shoulders. Yet his sealed mouth smile was creepy enough to confirm it.

“And did you actually mean any of what you said?” Minhyun was more interested to hear Dongho speak on it.

That question stressed the guy out, he didn’t know how to respond to it. He had decided that it would be easier to just ignore it for now. Dongho let him down by being silent. 

“Ah.” The tall man acted indifferent to the lack of communication, but Dongho could tell that he was hurt by it.

The elevator doors slid wide and they both had to get off at the same time. Dongho didn’t know what to say to make Minhyun feel less bad tonight. As soon as they were through the door, Dongho suddenly stopped the other by turning him around and shoving him into the same doorframe.

Dongho was shorter than the other, so he had to lean forwards and stand on his tippy toes just to lean into him. It wasn’t a even a hug, he simply just rest up against Minhyuns frame while clinging to him. But for a while it seemed nice.

“Dongho?” Minhyun tried to laugh if off and drove him away, but the other man was glued to his chest, arching his sappy, puppyish face upwards like he didn’t want to be interrupted.

Minhyun gave in and hugged the guy back, not bothering to question why he had earned it in the first place. The guy must be just pitying him again, Minhyun concluded, it wasn’t true. Dongho indeed cherished him, he just didn’t know how to admit it.

“What are you doing, idiot?” Minhyun laughed at his friends face. “What, I can’t hug you now?” Dongho acted defensive and hugged him even tighter to squeeze his last breath out of him. Minhyun was smiling again.

“You are too heavy, let go.” Minhyun earned no response. “Alright.” He noted.

“Let’s go do it inside then.” Minhyun struggle to pull his arm out of Donghos clutches and reach to the keypad of his apartment door. As soon as the door beeped open they both fell through it, barely holding off from falling flat onto the floor.

The next morning Minhyun was the first one to blink open his brittle eyelashes. He was sleeping on his side facing Dongho who mirrored him. The sunlight was coming in bright though the window, draping them with a sheet of an orange morning glow.

Dongho woke up a few seconds later, instantly smiling at Minhyun who he was still hugging until now. A hand rest hanging across Minhyuns waist, the other arched on top of the pillows to reach his hair.

Minhyun realized that they were still wearing the same clothes from last night in bed, apparently they had fallen asleep by accident. “We ended up like this again.” He grinned at the situation.

“It is all your fault.” Dongho pretended to be mad and hiss air from his nostrils, but the corners of his lips were still stretching far wide for a laugh. 

Dongho had no problem with it, he liked waking up like this even if it had made the sheets dirtier. He then grinned right back, with his big cat eyes that became just thin smiling lines whenever he pulled back the corners of his mouth for that toothy smile.

“How is everything always my fault?” Minhyun puckered his lips while he sulked, Dongho lightly smacked his side with his paw to make him stop trying to act cute.

He was having a hard time still opening his eyes, looking at Dongho smile at him felt like he was staring directly into the bright sun. Minhyun giggled without a cause again, it was contagious, Dongho did too.

The sleepy Kang joked around by randomly attacking Minhyun with quick childish kisses all over his face. In that moment it seemed fitting, Dongho did not worry. Although it had caused Minhyun to laugh, he still hated being smooched so early in the morning, especially by bad breath Dongho and his scratchy jaw.

Minhyun retaliated by rolling himself on top of the other and sitting down on his hips while their hands fought in random directions. The two continuously giggled until one of them ran out of breath.

Dongho was suddenly breathing heavy, staring at the man far above him while Minhyun waited to see him get fine again. The tallest bowed down to express his apology, his forehead almost touched Donghos and they were stuck in this low intimate position.

It seemed like forever since they had been staring into each others eyes in dead silence, all that laugher just a second ago was already a thing of the past and now only hard breaths remained.

Tussling like this, kissing and hugging each other would be alright if they were children, but they weren’t. The two were adults and things like this held a different meaning. Dongho didn’t know what would happen if he told Minhyun that he liked him. The guy probably already knew, but it was Donghos task to say it with his own mouth. It had never really crossed his mind of what this would make the two afterwards.

He had never thought about dating anyone, let alone dating this guy. But now Minhyun was all he could think about as if he had become ill for him. Suddenly his eyes were darting from place to place, matching his quickened heartbeat. The man knew that the awful feeling of withering butterflies inside of his stomach wouldn’t pass unless he confessed.

Dongho broke the cowardly silence by clearing his throat, yet just as he was brave enough to say anything at all he heard his phone buzz. The guy checked his pockets and couldn’t find it, he had dropped it somewhere by the door.

Minhyun got off him and let him sit up to leave, “Go ahead.” 

The tall guy combed his hair and tried not to be awkward now after everything had ended so abruptly. Dongho gave him a stressed smile and went to retrieve his phone.

Dongho rushed to his aunts home after hearing her sound upset on the phone, he thought that there was a sudden family emergency. He asked Minhyun to drive him there again, but the guy would accompany him to no further than taking him up the road entering the apartment complex. Dongho claimed he would get there faster from here if he sprint the rest of the way.

He literally had burst through the apartment doors to see his aunt, but his feet came to an alarming halt seeing his whole family, including her in the living room silent and waiting for him to show up. 

The silence and judging stares weren’t there for long. As soon as he had processed everyone was looking at him the room erupted into yelling so loud it was tearing his ears off. It took him a while to realize what the voices were telling him.

Turns out that finally, after all of this time he had been found out. The reveal had happened so fast Kang didn’t even to get to ask how it happened – someone had snitched.

Dongho had failed everyone by lying to his own relatives. They were so disappointed in him and he could only agree with their verdict. Dongho was told he had to move back into his aunts home and from now on only focus on studying until graduating and just getting a good job if he didn’t want to raise a family at all.

Dongho didn’t know what to do, what to tell Minhyun. He was disappointed and angry at himself for not hiding that lie well enough. In a way, he had failed Hwang too.

The first thing Kang did after getting back into Minhyuns car was curse and then put his face in his hands. Now he had to tell Minhyun what had happened and that they were over. It was the hardest news he possibly ever had to break.

“Fuck.” He hissed.

Somehow Minhyun already knew. Dongho was distraught, avoiding his eyes. Minhyun hesitated to give him a hug, but as soon as he had initiated, the guy leaned directly into his chest. “What? What.” Minhyun asked.

“We got caught.” Dongho spat.

Minhyun had lost his words, he kept an awkward smile on his face unable to think of a better expression, “How did they find out about us?” He was shocked, but at the same time, it wasn’t like he didn’t already expect this outcome someday.

“I don’t know.” Dongho replied. 

“There has to be a reason!” Minhyun insisted. Dongho broke out from hiding his face, he stared at Minhyuns lap for a blank second until he spoke his mind.

“Maybe it was one of my stupid friends, they must have told them?” He supposed, and only one name would come to mind. 

“Probably Aaron.” The last time he had seen him, the guy didn’t look like he approved of Dongho and had stormed off. Dongho hadn’t heard of him since, he had been hanging out with Minhyun instead and had even forgotten about that guy.

Minhyun worried, “Why would he do that?” 

It was possible, but he was Donghos best friend. There was no way he would throw Kang under the bridge like that out of jealousy. Dongho had no clue either, he couldn’t answer. 

“I am sorry.” Minhyun spoke instead, ending the hug when noticing Donghos trembling hands. For some reason the guy was afraid now out of all times.

“Don’t be sorry. It was me that got myself into this mess.” The guy blamed himself.

It was bound to happen, he would one day have to pay for his stupidity – Dongho had always told himself. But now he regretted it more than previously anticipated, because being by Minhyuns side had made him forget that it would ever happen.

Minhyun made another weak smile, “It’s gonna be okay.” He forced Dongho into a cuddle again and the guy didn’t resist, sitting nose pressed against Minhyuns collarbone. When Dongho hugged back it seemed like the act of him saying goodbye.

Dongho didn’t fear facing his angry parents anymore, now he only feared leaving Minhyun. He wanted to stay.

“Yeah, I am sure it will be – for you.” Dongho showed his anger, but Minhyun would forgive him knowing that Dongho would never be with him anyway. His borrowed time had been cut short.

Minhyun asked the silliest question, the absurdity of it in this situation even made him grin, “Can we still be friends with this after this, Dongho?”

Even though Dongho wanted to agree, he felt that it was no longer up to him. Before his family had absolutely adored Minhyun, so now after finding out he had lied to them too, they probably no longer wished to see him ever again.

The guiltiest one of the two spoke very little after a long pause, “No clue.” Minhyun let his head finally drop down, “This sucks.” 

The short man began to pull closer again, his fingers grabbed at Minhyuns clothes and his breaths became loud. He shut his eyes for a minute after that they both went back home to pack his stuff.

Almost two weeks had passed by quickly after the split. Everything wasn’t quite as bad actually, since then Dongho was now allowed to live in his aunts house again. Although, he didn’t quite get his old room back and now he resided excommunicated inside of something he definitely knew was once a broom closet. 

His new room was so small that as soon as anyone would open the door they’d have to instantly climb up into the bed, if anyone could could squeeze the gap that is. Dongho didn’t complain, at least je wasn’t sleeping in the outside staircase tonight like on his first night back.

His family were so upset with him that from now on, he had been grounded from leaving the house for anything other than to attend university – that meant no dates, no friends and not a spare moment from these annoying kids that he had to take care of again as the babysitter.

He got his old life back and it sucked. No matter how annoying Minhyun had been to him, he would prefer that any day over this.

Dongho left the apartment with a garbage bag in hand, the trash bins were far outside the apartment complex, so the guy used that as his chance to sneak outside past his curfew and get some fresh air. This time just like all the other times, instead of hopping into the buildings elevators he instead disappeared down the stairwell, obviously to do something other than just taking out the trash.

Three floors below his own, pressed up against the wall like a spy, a man on a mission, Minhyun was already waiting for him. Upon seeing him like that, Dongho just wanted to pick him up and put him inside the garbage bag as well – his first natural response.

The two friends had met like this in secret for the past few days. Minhyun would sometimes meet up with him to give him a ride home from school or just plain take him for a spin in his car. Dongho didn’t dare to skip his classes anymore, but Minhyun was skipping all of his just to see him. The two would also text in secret. Dongho couldn’t call him though because the walls in his home were too thin, and he hated to admit it, but he missed hearing that jerks voice and his annoying laugh.

“Hwang!” Dongho whisper-shouted at his friend, putting down the plastic bag. Minhyun flinched in fear before realizing that the whisper belonged to Kang and not his aunt running at him with a pan. 

The tallest pulled his facemask down under his chin to reveal his grin, therefore triggering for his friend to rush into a head-butt hug. Minhyun had to catch his step to not fall, his arms instantly wrapped around the short frame of the smiling man pressed cheek to his chest. 

“We gotta be quiet right?” Minhyun reminded the guy. He was happy to see his best friend too, but he didn’t want to get themselves caught because of it.

“Right, right.” Dongho got himself off from the other guy to instead stare and smile at him. There was a small urge in him to do more than just hug, but now they were just normal friends again or at least they tried to be.

The two men walked all the way out to the first floor together silently catching up on old news. Dongho got to the building exit and went out while Minhyun waited inside, hiding himself from being seen from any of the building windows. 

In the far distance he could see Kang getting on his tippy toes for a three-point toss of him throwing the bag of trash into the container as if it were a basketball. There was a crashing glass sound when it had landed, something definitely broke in there, but Dongho turned around to gesture thumbs up at his friend.

Reunited, the two headed back up the same stairwell, but Minhyun stopped right before reaching Donghos floor. The two faced one another and drew big sighs.

“Are you going already?” Minhyun watched Dongho nod, he made a pouty kissy face to get him to stay, but the guy purposely closed his eyes to not fall for that scam.

Minhyun grabbed his hand just as Dongho was passing him. He hadn’t said goodbye, but it was too hard for him to speak it against his will when he wanted to stay with Minhyun so much. He gave in and blessed him with just a few more seconds.

Then Kang realized that he had been just staring at the guy for a full minute or more, it caused him to jump in place, “If I am out longer for five minutes it will be suspicious!”

“I see the problem, but I just don’t see that as mine.” Minhyun shot at him. Dongho retaliated by whining. “Oh come on, give me a break. You know I don’t want to go back up there either, but I’d be dead meat then.”

Minhyun raised his hand to cup Donghos fluffy cheek, the guy didn’t mind it at all, “I drove all the way out here to see you for just five minutes.”

Dongho was sad and apologetic, he always knew that Hwang would go above and beyond for him, but he never had the chance to repay. “Sorry.” He nod. 

Minhyuns laughter was quiet, Donghos eyes lit up bright. “Still worth.” The tall male replied.

Suddenly a high-pitched teenage voice ringing shrill down the stairway made them both jump on the spot, in panic Minhyun had forgotten to take the hand sitting still on Donghos cheek off from him, so it was still there.

“Dongho! I am going to tell!” A young cousin of the guy mocked him, staring straight down from the floor above.

“Hey, what are you doing up there watching, you little creep?” Dongho yelled back at the kid, flashing the nastiest growl at them. The kid flashed their tongue at Dongho and ran off back inside.

Dongho raised his yell so it could be heard, but he wasn’t sure if it did. “Yo, don’t snitch on me again!”

He turned to his best friend. “Sorry. Looks like I gotta go.”

“Alright, take care.” Minhyuns fingers lost hold of Donghos grip. While running up the steps, Dongho looked back at his stretched out hand that no longer touched the fingertips of the other, and spawned an sorry frown at him.

Another weekend had passed since. Dongho sat on his bed, legs crossed facing the suspect. The fact that there was a single light bulb dangling from the ceiling by a wire, just like inside of an investigation room straight out of a seventies crime flick, didn’t make this any less tense for Mingi, who was in middle of gulping down a ball of spit.

“Dongho, I really didn’t mean it!” The real snitch was speaking to him. Dongho twitched his eyebrow in response to his pleas.

“You know that you will have to do something big if you ever want to make up for it?” The other man teased him a little over what had happened.

Mingi lowered his head in apology regretting his sin. It happened when he had ran into some of Donghos cousins. Since he lived with Hwang then, they hadn’t seen him a lot and asked how he was. So Mingi had then told them his suspicions. He boasted with confidence about how he was sure that Dongho was in a fake relationship, not realizing it would ever reach the ears of Kangs aunt.

“I am so sorry! So sorry!” The tall male gestured himself bowing down. Dongho cracked up more, reaching to pet and ruffle Mingis straight hair. 

The tall man still couldn’t help, but to feel bad for his friend who looked so pitiful studying all day in his windowless chamber, not even allowed to get a part-time job or practice his martial arts anymore. Mingi could only see him if he came over, of course each time he had to be pat down to prevent him from bringing in contraband. 

“It’s all cool.” Dongho laughed it off as always. His laugh attracted a knock on the door asking the pair to be quiet, but by then it was Mingis time to leave anyway.

Before he left, he gestured an index finger over his lips to tell Dongho to stay as quiet as a mouse, pulling out small card sized photo cards out of who knows where inside of his body, of pretty girl group members meant to help Dongho keep his long days short.

Dongho gave Mingi an appalled stare, rising his hands to reject them and trying to argue with him about how he wasn’t going to jerk off to some pictures. To argue they were both only using hand gestures as if they were in a silent film. 

Mingi rolled his eyes acting annoyed by being turned down and pulled out his backup, this time boy group member cards. The guy grinned at Dongho, this time the poor bastard had suddenly gotten so red and stiff.

Only moments later, Donghos aunt witnessed the Mingi dashing out of the cupboard on all fours to save his life from Kangs martial arts swing. Dongho considered the bastard lucky for escaping. He couldn’t have such filth bought into his confinement.

The lights in Donghos bedroom had to go out at the earliest hours of the night, for him this was probably worse than when serving in the army, but Dongho still managed to cheat and not go to bed. 

He hid his head under a duvet, laying on his stomach with his feet dangling in the air. Dongho peeked at the screen of his phone on low light. He checked his messages, exactly on time one arrived from Hwang.

“How have you been doing? Been busy?” Dongho replied to Minhyuns previous message of him asking the same thing. Nothing new had happened for Dongho. 

Dongho stared at his phone screen with the widest eyes, awaiting that reply from the guy. “Busy.” Minhyuns reply was short and straight to the point. However, he sent another shortly after.

“I miss seeing you around.” Minhyun made himself sound corny, even via text. 

The other man somehow still managed to blush from it, he missed him too, but he couldn’t admit that he missed Minhyun that much. “You think I don’t miss you too? Stop whining.” Dongho sent back.

Without a reply, Minhyun began to send more messages to him, “And I miss our kisses even if they didn’t mean anything to you.” His message was not intended to be sad, but Dongho felt guilty.

Without thinking, Dongho shot back. “I wanna kiss you right now.” It took him a few seconds to realize the exact words he had just typed, and once he did he began to repeatedly hammer his face into his pillow out of embarrassment. 

Soon enough Minhyun replied with an open threat, “I am gonna steal you tomorrow after school.” He followed up, “Sleep tight.”

“Ok.” Dongho managed to tap across the screen with shaky fingers, still cringing at his own message that was now permanently stuck on his screen.

The star struck Dongho stared at the phone for long enough for it to become dark, and then hugged it tight and precious to his chest so no one could take it away from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> friendship goals


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sry for cliffhanger in this i didnt want to fly past 4k. hope everyone is doing well!!!

After an end of all classes Dongho approached the outside school gate where Minhyun always used to wait for him with his fancy car, hoping to meet him again. As expected, Dongho came upon his ex surrounded by a group of students who didn’t know him, while he awkwardly gave them conversation. 

The girls next to him were giving Minhyun the same eyes that Dongho gave the guy too – it was horrific to see yourself in someone else. Dongho asked himself before going over there, did he really look like that?

“Well, well, well. Look who it is.” Minhyun averted his eyes from the crowd to greet Dongho instead. 

The short male couldn’t look at his face, he was already blushing in the ears just by coming over here, mouth curling into a smile against his will. He tried to supress it somehow, but by then Minhyun had already noticed it and Dongho only looked like an angry pufferfish trying to hold himself from smiling.

“Minhyun.” Dongho spoke just his name, acting like it had been years since he had broken up with this guy. Broken up – that is what Hwang had told his friends after they asked him.

“Aren’t you happy to see me?” Minhyun bent his knees in a little waiting for his hug in front of all of these new people.

Dongho let out a groan and yanked Minhyuns hand, dragging him away from the group of women. Minhyun waved at them from afar, pointing down at Donghos head to them as the reason he had to go, to then gesture an apologetic bow.

The two reached the car. Rather than Dongho being happy as before, he had become grumpy. The guy was jealous as hell. Minhyun found him so cute that he wanted to pull on his fluffy cheeks.

“You know that I am single now, right?” Minhyun played around. Dongho snort, “Two weeks and you’ve already moved on? Man, shut up.”

“Hey, I was just kidding around!” Minhyun raised his voice wanted to be heard by his friend who was already opening the car door to lock himself inside. Minhyun joined him.

The two sat in Minhyuns sport car without starting it for a while. It instantly felt like they were back together, Minhyun wanted to hold Donghos hand, but he knew with that face on Kang, the guy might bite him. 

As soon as the car began to drive without a destination, Dongho worried about his curfew being broken if he didn’t get home before bedtime. He hadn’t been told where the two men would go, Minhyun was really kidnapping him today.

“So no hug or nothing, huh?” The guy mocked Dongho as soon as he had met him. After not seeing him around that much anymore, this was the part that Kang missed the least.

Dongho snort and shook his head like such a request was out of the question for him, which was puzzling for Minhyun, he tilt his head at the other.

“You should be more excited to see me. You sounded more eager to see me in your text messages.” Minhyun had gone too far by bringing that up. 

“Dude, ‘should be’ is the story of your freaking life. Mind your business.” Dongho insulted his friend who only laughed harder.

“Besides, that was a typo.” He whined. 

“I am sure it was.” Minhyun replied while eyes back on the road. 

“I am going somewhere and you are coming with me today.” He bought it up, only to disappoint Dongho with, “I have a rehearsal I need to attend.”

Dongho was honestly hoping to hang out or catch a movie together, but being dragged to Minhyuns acting gigs certainly wasn’t something he had in mind. “Why a rehearsal, it’s not even the real thing?” Dongho groaned.

Minhyun smiled only to himself, “Of course I wouldn’t take you to the real thing without making you pay for a ticket first.” 

Dongho pretended to gag after Minhyun had flashed him a wink. But of course, he expected nothing less of this greedy brat. “You want me to just sit there and do nothing, but watch you fail at reading your lines?” Dongho sassed him back. 

Minhyun shook his head, “Nope. A lot of people in my field also do stuff for television, isn’t broadcast what you study in university?”

Suddenly Donghos eyes started to glow with this evil glare. Minhyun carried on, “You should start making connections if you want to get out there fast. I’m bringing you with me so you can schmooze with the people there, actors, producers.”

Minhyun lowered his face at the other man, because there was a catch. Of course there always was one. “However, only under the condition that you act as my arm candy.” He suggested.

“What?” Dongho grimaced. 

“I want you to just pretend to be my boyfriend again, only for a day. Please?” He sounded like he was genuinely begging, Dongho wanted to say yes out of pity.

However he changed his mind seeing that Minhyun had smirked to himself. “You’ve done a pretty ‘convincing’ job before.” The tallest spoke.

Dongho lost his face, dropping in his seat to whine out loud. So Minhyun continued to instruct, “We don’t have to actually tell anyone outright we are dating or anything. We just have to make it very blatantly obvious to them that we are fucking.” 

“We are what—excuse me?” Dongho gaped his gob hole. “I don’t want to. Take me home.” Dongho instantly disobeyed, but Minhyun was already set to arrive with Dongho in arm and nothing would stop him.

“It’s how you can climb ranks Dongho – it’s not always about your work or talent, most of the time it’s all about rumours and gossip.” Minhyun winked at him. 

“Or would you rather hold to an arm of some pruned, wrinkly director?” Minhyun added.

Dongho thought about it, yet he didn’t have to think hard. Even if it was only for a day, he wanted to be Minhyuns boyfriend again. Minhyun already knew he would agree that way.

“Alright, you win.” Dongho scoffed, pretending it didn’t matter to him. Yet secretly from the very corner of his eye he viewed Minhyuns reaction – a pleased smile.

For the rest of the ride Dongho sat with crossed arms, clutching his bag to his chest for the rest of the passively aggressively silent ride. Dongho expected a lot of pointless sitting around and awkward clapping to strangers finishing reading their scripts without messing up only after the fifth time of trying.

Dongho had never been in the theatre since maybe he was in middle school, it was far too fancy for him. He appeared into the hallow dark stage hall, colour red dominated the surroundings, across all carpets, seats and of course the stage curtain itself, with small golden accents here and there. 

But even then still didn’t want to be here, he nervously hid behind Minhyuns wide tall shoulders once the young actor began shaking hands with his co-stars as well as the stage floor managers. Dongho held onto Minhyuns pinkie, hiding his hand in the other mans pocket away from strangers stares. He cursed himself in the head for being crazy enough to agree stepping into this jerks car.

Minhyun had told him that he’d be able to introduce himself to the famous people and seduce them, but it was actually anything but that. Dongho stayed ignored in the crowd, despite him clinging to the most important person there. All of these people were too busy to even notice that Kang was there at all. Everyone only looked at Minhyun and just him, treating him like a five star celebrity, while probably mistaking Dongho for his assistant.

The stage became busy, stylists arrived to doll Minhyun up for his role even though it was a simple script reading. Dongho was shoved aside by women rushing to remove Minhyuns overcoat and instead prepare him for his role.

Dongho stood there, quivering like a leaf in the wind. After a while Minhyun walked back to him and bounced his shoulders in apology.

“Looks like things got busy. You might have to wait.” Minhyun spoke to him in a childishly high pitched tone, trying to act cute as if it would work on Dongho.

“Dudee, you can’t leave me out here!” Dongho whispered to him while looking around at all of these scary, important people he didn’t know. Minhyun calmed him with a half hearted hug.

“Sorry, babe.” The tallest leaned low into Donghos ear, just so the other co-stars would see it. The other man swatted him away as if he were getting rid of flies in his face.

Dongho walked away himself, looking back countless times for a chance to flick the bastard off. He stayed in the seating area where he would be forced to wait instead of being at home right now and not getting into trouble.

He sighed. Minhyun was busy, so busy in fact that he was shooting himself in the foot everytime by leaving his important schedules just to meet Dongho. But even if they could see each other like this, they were secretly still happy with this too.

He sat in a faraway seat, one of the hundreds he had picked out, where he wouldn’t have to listen to the looping lines of some boring Victorian era stage play. Yet no matter how bored he was, he didn’t get tired of watching Hwang. Even when the actor was on standby, just his presence alone on the stage was mesmerising. Dongho had to shake his head fearing he was becoming delusional, almost obsessed with that guy.

Dongho had to endure the play for about ten minutes, before someone had decided to sit directly next to him. Out of the literal hundreds of other seats much closer to the stage. He was upset.

Dongho looked up and saw a pretty woman take seat next to him. This rare moment of feeling a woman’s presence for the first time in days dropped dead just as soon as that woman had dropped her sneaker clad feet on top of the next seat ahead of her.

The woman looked just as bored as him, perhaps that is why she had come to socialize. She wore reflective sunglasses indoors, tipping them down on her thin nose only when turning to stare directly into Donghos face. 

“Hey. You are Hwangs new playmate, right?” She introduced herself with a cool voice. It took Dongho a second to match that somehow familiar voice to the face he was seeing once the glasses did not obstruct strangers eyes.

She mimicked the same surprised expression right back at him, they slowly neared their faces at one another in shock. “You! Eunwoo?” He made a shocked gasp once he recognized her.

The same exact person who had once cursed him with planting the idea to pretend he didn’t like girls to fool his parents into his head, was now sitting before his very eyes, completely responsible for literally ruining his life.

“I knew you looked familiar as hell!” She laughed in absolute awe. “So you and Minhyun are—oh, my.”

Eunwoo tried to put up a visual of her two lone index fingers wiggling and slowly colliding towards one another, until finally meeting tip to tip in the middle. As soon as her fingertips had connected, her pupils expanded like eyes of a cat. 

Dongho glared with a frown. 

“How the heck did you end up with Hwang?” She glanced up and demanded to know it all.

“I did not!” Dongho lied, but the evil woman had no reason to believe him, pictures of them posing as a couple were all over Minhyuns social media, he still hadn’t deleted them even after they had broken up.

Dongho realized this too and gritted his teeth, trying not to yell out of frustration. He hissed in air before a calm and collected response, “I was only pretending to date him. It really is a long story.”

“It must be.” Eunwoo glanced up and down for clues. Dongho snapped his head at her, not wanting for her to take it the wrong way or something.

“Listen, I already told you. My auntie was desperate to marry me off. So this way everyone would at least leave me alone!” He defended himself. Eunwoo remembered this story from last time she had met him too, she nod.

“So I take that you are just using Minhyun?” To ask that she had leaned in closer, so close that Dongho had to bend back. He swore he even saw her nostrils twitch as if she could track the scent of fear.

“No, he was in on it too.” Dongho explained. There was a pause of him gulping, his words began to shake the next time he spoke, “D-did Minhyun say anything?”

“Mhm.” Eunwoo gave him a strong nod. Donghos heart instantly dropped like his life was over.

“He hardly ever shuts up about you in front of me, given that I am the only person he can probably allow himself to go into such – great detail, about you.” She waved her hand, trying to display how absolutely uninterested she was by it, meaning that the secret was safe with her.

“Judging from what he has told me it didn’t sound like all of it was part of a play.” Eunwoo leaned in closer to him, holding up her wrist bent down like a claw to pretend to eat out of an imaginary bowl of popcorn. 

“So what’s going on between you two exactly?” She asked out of pure curiosity. “It’s really-really complicated.” Dongho repeated the same, but for him there was no way of buying out of this now. 

She leaned even closer, so close this time that her face was now in his face, eyes peeled wide like straight out of a horror movie. “So you decided to get close with him and then ended up actually liking him, is that it?” She somehow already knew.

“It was an accident!” Dongho cried in desperation, so loud that she fell off. By now it was a miracle nobody had caught them bickering back here yet and kicked them out. 

“Which part of that was an accident?” Eunwoo grimaced. “The second part, mostly.” Dongho felt like he was starting to sweat and the truth came out of him easier.

Eunwoo dropped right back into her seat, deviously crossing her fingers, “As expected.” Dongho whined at such a response and shortly collapsed his face inside of his palms as if he were crying. 

“You know, I didn’t peg you for that kind of a person.” She threw another good glance at Dongho.

It was hard to imagine this totally pompous college jock willingly getting himself stuck inside of the ‘loving’ clutches of Hwang Minhyun. “I know. This is so horrible.” Dongho begged to for her to help him to somehow like Minhyun a little less and of course she wasn’t going to. This was fun for her.

Eunwoo almost wanted to clap, Dongho had put up a better and more emotional performance than the one she had come to watch happening on the stage. She cackled.

“Stop laughing! You have to help me, this is all your fault!” He rant. “No, it is not.” She waved her wrist to the desperate man who was blaming anyone but himself.

“If you are so worried, then just go out with him for real.” Her suggestion sounded fairly innocent to herself, but to Dongho it was something unfathomable. 

He began to worry, “I can’t. My auntie won’t let me even see him. And besides, I don’t think that is a good idea—”

“Then stop seeing him.” She easily found another solution. Before Dongho tried open his mouth and say something about it, the woman cut off his words while they were still on the root of his tongue.

“Minhyun is stupid and doesn’t know any better. He must think that there’s still a chance between you two.” She lectured Dongho, but halfway through it he already wasn’t listening.

He looked so defeated, and instantly turned to longingly stare at Minhyun in the distance, spawning a pout on top of his already sad grimace. He was so hopeless. Eunwoo sighed from being annoyed by both of these men.

“Can you just take me home?” Dongho still complained about getting home late, but didn’t want to interrupt Minhyuns play to ask him to drive him back.

Eunwoo folded the legs of her sunglasses and tucked them away somewhere safe as her hand raised into a claw that pulled directly onto the mans earlobe, pulling him standing out of the seat.

Minhyun took a glance away from the people he spoke to turn at Dongho sitting in the audience, there he saw the guy clumsily getting out of his seat lead by none other than Eunwoo, a phone gripped in her hand. She was stealing him away.

Minhyun had received a buzz in his pocket earlier. He rushed to read a message from Eunwoo. It read; “Send in the cash Hwang. Every hour you miss, he loses a finger.” The woman had jokingly teased him over text.

Minhyun had been later told that Dongho had claimed some mystery fatigue and asked Eunwoo for the lift directly back to his aunts house. He gave up on seeing that guy for the next day or two.

The neat sports car of his swerved into the parking spot of his apartment complex garage. Minhyun silenced the engine of his car and stepped out, not expecting for his phone to receive any more messages. 

This time he didn’t think to rush back to his apartment knowing there would be no one waiting for him. However once he got there, his feet halt before he could even process that a person squat down up against the wall right by the door of his apartment. Dongho sat there welcoming him with the most miserable grin.

As he slowly started to stand, which looked hard for him, it was obvious that he had been here waiting for a small while. Minhyun watched him with concerned eyes, “I thought you were going home for the night?”

Dongho kept the smile, “I changed my mind.”

Even if he had pretended to be Minhyuns boyfriend for merely just five minutes today, he realized that he still liked it. Dongho wanted to do it all over again.

After hearing and seeing, Minhyun waited there as his brain slowly began to melt down before the guys silly smirk. There was no reason for him to choose Hwangs home over the house of his own family, yet he had done so anyway, because he had wanted to stay with Hwang.

“You idiot.” Minhyun told him, “You didn’t have to wait outside for me. You know the door unlock code.” 

Dongho shrug, “It’s not my house anymore.” Minhyun pout feeling bad for the poor guy. He should know that he was still eternally welcome. They were friends and all.

As Minhyun took small steps forwards him, Dongho took the biggest step to meet him in the middle, the next second the guy was hugging Minhyun even though there wasn’t a reason for it. He just simply missed doing it.

Right now Dongho felt just as stupid as he looked. It was painful for him to admit, but he had really missed this bastard, so much that he didn’t wish to miss a second without him. By now Dongho believed that he had finally and completely lost his mind.

“My aunt is gonna kill me for not being home right now.” The wide-eyed Dongho feared to imagine her yelling. 

“Maybe she won’t notice? Just sneak back before breakfast and you will be fine.” Minhyun suggested, recounting his own experiences of running away from home when he was younger.

Dongho yanked back to look up at the guys face and give him a look meaner than ever, “Where do you expect me to stay the rest of this night then? Moron.”

Minhyun curled his lips into a thin line, the corners twitching in place wanting to break into a laugh. “My room?” He stared at Dongho.

Dongho gave up, but not before a defeated groan. He returned to the hug that he knew would calm him, there his nose felt ticklish against Minhyuns collar. Minhyun reached to tilt Donghos chin up and make the man look at him. It was an instant mistake, Donghos eyes were glimmering like tiny stars while they nervously observed Minhyuns face, only a mere breath away.

The short guy looked like he was gonna kiss him, Minhyun knew it was coming from a mile away. 

The prediction was right, Dongho did just that. A devilish smile of his is what disconnected the short lived kiss. Previously, Dongho had promised to only be a friend to Minhyun. Yet what kind of friends were they exactly now, Minhyun didn’t have a damn clue anymore.

“What was that for?” Minhyun chuckled in a deep voice, his face still close enough to go for a second round at any time.

Dongho appeared to be in a joking mood, “I just wanted to brush up on my skills.” Minhyun rolled his eyes, “Right.” The next moment, the tallest returned to what became their next heated moment.

They were equally robbed of a breath, Dongho took a step back to recover, but ended up bumping himself into the wall behind him. Now he was pressed against it, held by the weight of Minhyuns chest rubbing against his own. The tallest would kiss him dirty, chase his mouth when he tried to turn away for a air.

“Wait—" Dongho spoke without barely any breath left in his lungs, his lips shiny from being layered with the droll of the other man. 

There was now a hand that made them separate on Donghos chest, neither of them knew how it had gotten there all of a sudden. Dongho stared down at it, the fingers slightly crooked like tiny hooks attached to the fabric. It wasn’t heavy, but with it there he found it harder to breathe.

“Minhyun, there are cameras pointing at us.” The shortest referred to the hallway security cams, right now they were only slightly out of the shot.

“And?” Minhyun played dumb, smiling against the parted lips of his friend, pulling his waist closer into his own. Dongho had made a whimper, or a sound that implied stress. 

To escape, he then tried to lean his head out of the way again, but in response Minhyun only began to pepper his neck with more pecks. Dongho squeezed his eyes shut. His hands were pulling Minhyun away because it tickled, but at the same time his fingernails had gripped into the other mans clothing to not allow him to leave.

Minhyun stopped soon and had began laughing at how much shorter Dongho had become in his arms after his legs had given out.

“Let’s continue this inside.” Dongho suggested after his knees had gone all gooey. This sounded somewhat familiar, so Minhyun agreed.


	20. Chapter 20

Both of their feet clumsily stumbled across the floor once they had made it in, the plan was to remove their shoes first, but they had already gone past the doorway entering the living room area.

Dongho felt air for a short time, Minhyun had let go of him and pushed him onto the couch. That horrible flat surface made Dongho feel like his spine was laid out on a flat rock. His bag and outdoor wear ended up on the same floor not far from where he had ended up.

The tallest pounced next to him, sitting on his knees like a cat while leaning forwards with a giant smirk on his face. Meanwhile, Dongho had this horrified look on his face, his counterpart found him cute. He shut his eyes hoping it would somehow make him invisible to Minhyuns mocking stares. 

That guy probably knew everything by now. Dongho liked him. Letting himself fall for that bastard was so embarrassing for Dongho, he wanted to die of shame. Maybe if it could have been anyone else, but Hwang he would feel less annoyed about this.

The lack of vision didn’t help Dongho to notice that Minhyun was approaching, his nose nuzzled into the crook of his friends neck, leaning up to poke at his jaw. The guy acted by cuddling Dongho with his arms, then riding himself on top and pinning his friend down beneath him.

Minhyuns hand jolt down to look for Donghos outer thigh, trying to find the right point at which he could lift it up under the grip of his hand. Dongho reopened his eyes to glare. Even though he approved it, something about this seemed off to him. 

“Hey, how come you always get to be the one on top of me?” Dongho spoke casually. 

“Well yeah, obviously. You got a complaint or something?” Minhyun pushed his face further away, but still not far enough for Dongho to be able to not sweat in his close presence.

“Dude, no way! I am like waaay more alpha than you anyways. If we were to pretend then that would seem more believable.” Dongho bickered.

“More alpha than me? I have to laugh. You can’t even ask me out, coward.” The tallest giggled without remorse. Dongho let out a sigh to hide the fact that Minhyun was always right.

“I’m taller than you so it’s easier to reach you this way.” Minhyun snuggled his lips back close to his friends jawline to stop him from getting angry. It hardly helped. Dongho twitched in response, shying his cheek away from Minhyun to cuss him instead.

He hissed, “It’s not about the height idiot.” The guy couldn’t help being born so short.

“Then what does it depend on?” Minhyun pulled back, sitting nack on his knees patient and obedient until Dongho would finish his thought. Kang had nothing to say, nor did he wish to incriminate himself even more by saying something ridiculous.

“Forget about it. We gotta make this fair.” Dongho bought up a fist, gesturing for a game of rock-paper-scissors. This was the most diplomatic approach to the solution that he could reach.

Despite the condescending snickering he got. The ground rules where explained by Kang regardless, “If I win this time then I’ll get to lead, if you win—”

Minhyun interrupted him by hushing and telling him how he was ready to play his stupid game. The guy was certainly eager. “Okay then. Rock, paper—scissors!" Dongho announced.

Dongho usually always won, and that confidence had blinded him with the belief that he would win this time too. 

“Shit.” He hissed when Minhyuns palm of paper encased his balled up rock fist.

The winner smirked, “Hehe, looks like I won.” Dongho accepted his loss with only a frown and let the other initiate a slow kiss. He was giving in so easy now, Minhyun could tell the jerk wanted to be kissed.

Next, Minhyun knocked him over into the position of him being pinned down, immobile. Minhyuns hands slid back down to caress his outer thighs, grabbing and pulling them apart so he could stand in-between them. He leaned down, placing both of his elbows on the either side of Donghos blushing red ears. 

From across Donghos low horizon he could see the other man lining his hips to his ass. This was exactly why the guy fearing being in this position, Minhyun was a tricky one – the guy was a meanie, especially to Kang. 

The shortest squirmed under Minhyuns touches. He parted his mouth open for the other to finally claim it, his head swayed slightly to the left, eyes soft closed. Dongho breathed out slower than before, his chest expanding with each of his large breaths. The heart pound at his ribs like a war drum heard from afar, very much matching the sound in Minhyuns chest too.

After a heated minute, one of Minhyuns hands returned to Donghos thigh again like he was obsessed with that part, his fingers squeezing through the cloth fabric. The pretty lips of Dongho stayed parted still after Minhyun had drifted away from kissing him.

“You are too cute Dongho.” He smiled at the guy, his eyes droopy and full of love. Kang had no energy to look or respond, it all had been sucked out of him the last time they had kissed.

“What are you talking about?” Dongho groaned, his eyelids fallen too and voice only a deep whisper. “You really have no idea.” Minhyun showed his smiley teeth as if they were fangs, before reuniting them with Donghos tongue.

One time Minhyun grind his hips into Dongho, riding his groin upwards against him. Kang instantly whined. Minhyun saw only a pleasing response and without hesitation did it more, letting moans slip from his own mouth. Dongho let the guy do it, it was strange, but exciting at the same time. The friction felt so unbearably hot already, Dongho was sweating from underneath his clothes. He wanted to break into a moan, but shy to show his voice, Minhyun was onto him though.

Minhyun had been rolling a hot red tongue over the mans bottom lip that had become dark and puffy after being bit countless times by his mean captor.

Donghos knee was so high up, his ankle tensed straight and he suffered trying to hold it up even more just to allow space for more thrusts for the other man. Minhyuns body heat crashed and rolled in between from his ass and his trapped groin. 

“Ah, take it off.” Dongho mumbled something that didn’t really reach the ears of the other.

Those jeans he had worn before, they had become the most horrible thing right now. The stretched and tugged at his skin, but no force could puncture them while his body ached to feel Minhyuns skin on his. The heat had become almost unbearable, to the point where Dongho had produced a pool of sweat inside of the pit on his neck right where the collar of his shirt had ended. He was such a wreck, panting and biting on his lip to drive away the sting under his clothes.

His neck and ears were the prime target for kisses, small toothpick sized spots began to dot the mans skin and he didn’t fight back. Every sound that came from his mouth was a melodic mewl, his every look indicating a beg.

For Minhyun it was really so hard for him to hold off, he had wanted to fuck this jerk up for the longest time. This wasn’t enough for him, yet for Kang it was already too much. He looked like he was about to break from the heat alone.

From the mouth of the tallest came a tired grunt, as he no longer was able to gift Dongho kisses. The shortest had the chance to open his eyes and finally look. An feral beast resembling Minhyun sat above him, his eyes shut in ecstasy. Dongho looked away, suddenly feeling the need to cross his legs.

“Should we stop it here?” Minhyun had the same concerned thoughts as the other man. Both of them had obviously gotten too carried away.

In this moment Dongho hated Minhyun so much right now. “I am gonna die. I am really gonna die if you stop.” He whined, hand gripping over his own stomach as if there was a ticking bomb inside of it.

Minhyun understood. Since then he was grinding into his partner full swing now. His body rigged so that if he stopped, then he would explode just like his counterpart. 

The jerk was big, Dongho could feel him through the fabric of their clothes. The way Minhyun always aimed his groin directly at Donghos ass, made the other guy even scared to imagine what would happen to his body if that giant thing went inside of him.

The shortest suddenly winced his whole face to the left realizing his own weird thoughts. But then again, how could he not be picturing that when Minhyun was purposely giving his body have these kids of strange responses.

Minhyuns face followed Dongho, forcing calming kisses upon his cheeks. It took many tries until it was already over a dozen to keep Dongho from squirming away from him. His hand no longer held Donghos thigh, instead it had hooked itself around the mans waist.

Dongho could take this before, but now as his body had deteriorated and needed responses, he was desperate. He wanted to take off those damn pants that felt so bad when pressed deep into his skin.

“Minhyun!” He yelped. “I’m sorry.” The tallest hugged him, unable to remove himself anymore.

Without a break Minhyun now grind his body harder into the other man, bringing the other mans wide eyes dangerously close to almost tearing up. Donghos arms shot around the back of Minhyuns neck into a lock in order to trap him.

“That hurts.” He whined, bucking his own hips up at Minhyun to cause himself to feel that way. The tallest spawned an evil smirk, on purpose throwing in another slow grind that made Dongho hiss. 

“You are such a cry-baby.” He teased.

“You prick. Ggh—!” Dongho held back from cursing by biting into his bottom lip. Minhyun had just found a good angle to lean into, so he didn’t want to ruin it.

His legs had arched from the floor of the bed trying to earn constant friction from Hwang by pressing into him. He looked so weak and desperate, Minhyun wanted to just bite him because of how adorable he was. He hopped off and finally faced Donghos jeans that were in the way, the fabric between his legs had been stretched to the furthest point, cupping his skin so hard it was possible to make out shapes forming underneath it.

“Please?” Dongho begged. 

Minhyun hesitated for a bit, he didn’t know if it would be wise for them to go all the way yet. Dongho tend to easily agree to things and then regret them later, it made Minhyun nervous.

He gave in. As soon as the pants had been peeled off from him, Dongho yelped in both pain and relief. From hips all the way down to his knees, his skin had become irritated and bright where the pants one size too small had once encased him. Not only that, but he was sweating, so hard that it made the removed fabric feel damp already.

He never crossed his legs after he was being dressed down to his underwear, laying down with his legs held up and spread apart like a wide opened door. Minhyun ended up staring directly in-between, scanning with his eyes.

Dongho soon noticed Minhyuns stare and out of sheer panic he started to sit up by walking his ass further back onto the couch. Of course the other bastard followed him, crawling on top of his legs to get to his face. Dongho put in a hand in-between them so the guy would not come anymore close.

Minhyun poked his eyes down where a balled up fist pointed at his chest – it was time for rock, paper, scissors again. 

“What is this for? I thought I already won.” Minhyun reminded. “Yeah but, f-for the next time.” Dongho explained, while his face was on fire. 

Being pinned under Minhyun with that same bastard in control was too much. So just in case, he needed to make sure Minhyun would reverse it the next time, since Dongho also believed that there was no way he could ever lose twice in a row.

Minhyun teased him with a laugh and then held out his hand, they counted and put down their hands at the same time. Donghos pupils became so small as his brain was processing the result. Minhyun had done paper again this time, Dongho had done a rock.

“Can’t wait for our next time, Kang.” Minhyun smiled at the other man. “Fuck.” Dongho hissed in defeat.

Then the tallest put his head over Donghos shoulder while his hands blindly searched to find the waistband that kept Donghos briefs on him. Dongho rolled his eyes to the side and grimaced anger, while his own hands rummaged at Minhyuns pants to unzip him as well. Out of nowhere, Minhyun suddenly held him off, putting a grip into his hip and pushing himself back so he would be able to see the face of the other man that he liked so much.

Dongho stared at him with big beady eyes shaking in their sockets, they followed Minhyuns hand which was already reaching inside of his briefs and then his eyes shut upon contact. 

The sweaty heated skin of the short man was grossly wet to touch, but it made it easy to draw small strokes. Minhyuns touches were only tiny and experimental. The shorter man did the same touching to him, a row of anxious fingers had crossed entire length of his friend. Soon they both started to move at an even pace, Minhyun was so painfully huge, Dongho couldn’t stop his eyes from staring. Minhyuns reaction was a proud laugh.

Dongho winced his face at firsr, but then let out a hum as soon as Minhyun started to move his hand on him with more grip. He tried to repeat it back, but his confused body was now acting against him. Minhyun had done something bad to him, a curse or a spell that made him unable to do anything else, but squirm.

Hwang didn’t mind that Dongho had stopped his lazy hand, he laid the guy down properly on his back and got completely rid of all clothing that still hanged around. He backed his hips into the previous positions, pulling Donghos ass into his lap.

Dongho was all whines, his head shooting from right to left. Minhyun tried to move his lap, make thrusting motions. His fingers grappled at the skin of the other mans ass cheeks, scaring Dongho that he was going to be bastardly enough to try and put it in dry at some point.

Yet the idea of that was scaring Dongho less and less, even though it sounded painful to him, it’s gotta feel good too, right? He thought. Some of Donghos past female flings had told him a bit of that stuff, even tried to talk him into it at some point.

Dongho realized how strange his own thoughts had become and tried to shake his head to escape them, but his curious body acted different from his brain, arching his spine in a way to give Minhyun more access. Right then, Minhyun might have hissed, or even let out a rare curse word. Donghos soft thighs were swallowing up his hips, his ass bucking up and thrusting forwards at Minhyuns dick grinding on it.

Minhyuns strokes became their quickest, he had been carefully leaning his hand down in an angle where his knuckles would brush against Donghos bulging stomach.

“Minhyun— Hang on, Minhyun.” Dongho began to call out, that was accompanied with him trying to turn his hips. The tallest held them down in place with both hands, still in control.

The guy beneath him looked like someone out of an adult film, making lewd expressions and giving out the prettiest voices. Dongho had probably slept with so many people, but he had never learned to keep his voice down, or maybe it was Minhyun who had the ability to pull it out of him. Either way, hearing his cries was heavenly. 

Minhyun had realized how much he had probably ruined him, the mans body had now been conditioned to his very own touches. Perhaps from now on he wouldn’t be able to be with a anyone else but him anymore, because only Minhyun could drive him to this point.

By then Dongho stopped calling, he breathed in and out until he could come back to where he was before he felt hot and burning. It had not helped much for his case, he was about to explode.

However, suddenly right before the sparks and the fireworks, everything ceased. He looked at Minhyun who was giving him a mean grin, purposely stalling his hand.

Dongho gave him an angry pained stare and attempted to pull his knees up to cross them, pull out of Minhyuns hold out of spite. But his tensed struggle ended as soon as Minhyun returned the speed with his hand. He instantly melted and did nothing, but arch his spine against the mattress of the couch like a cat high from catnip.

Minhyuns pupils became heart shaped looking down on the other man, his palm was slick with wet and it didn’t end until the man had soon reached his limit. Donghos tummy jolt up with every spurt of release that landed on Minhyuns wrist, his parted lips never stopped whining even after had released all of it.

MInhyuns warm hands travelled to other places of his body, shifting from muscle to muscle that still remained stiff after the ordeal, calming the heated skin. But then the pleasant feeling was soon gone.

“Huh?” Dongho had to look up to see why Minhyun no longer touched him. Opening his eyes was a mistake, because as soon as he did he was faced with Minhyuns angry chode literally a whiff away from his face.

Minhyun tilt Donghos chin up with the slimiest grin on his face. “You sick bastard.” Dongho angrily glared up at him for this. It almost seemed like he was going to bite it off for a second, that wasn’t the case, Dongho only needed a better position to do this.

The tallest watched his friend sitting up on his knees with the most loving eyes, interrupting himself from staring to breathe out a pretty mewl once the lips met him.

“You’ve gotten better at this.” The tallest spoke to the man who’s bangs covered his eyes from seeing, perhaps for the better. 

Despite it, Dongho still tried to look up to send him laser eyes, but right then the thing hit the deep end of his tight throat just in the wrong moment for him to tear up by doing so. Minhyun wiped his face for him and Dongho tilted his head back down to continue. That same annoying pest laugh followed almost immediately after as his punishment.

Minhyun only thought he was being adorable.

Dongho shielded his hand back on his dick while he was still giving Minhyun his mouth. The tallest stared down with a grin, his fingers playing with Donghos hair, playfully tucking loose strands behind his ears so red they almost twitched to the touch. He wouldn’t be doing all this if he did not like Minhyun, the tall man concluded the obvious, but then why hadn’t he said it yet.

Dongho slick out his hot red tongue that rolled out from his own mouth like a carpet to stay connected to the tip. Then after the pause he returned the length into his mouth with a glug like sound that seemed not to bother neither of them, the more nasty slurps the better.

Minhyun moaned Donghos name repeatedly, the volume of his voice seemed to decrease or raise according to how his friend angled his mouth, how tight his lips squeezed around the wide girth.

There was more than just his own spit filling his mouth. Minhyun twitched against his sore lips edges, they glistened after being made incredibly wet. The guy spit his friend out briefly to have messy choke, but tried to return shortly after. However the tall male held him back from doing so by grabbing into the front of his bangs.

The larger guy stared in awe at the close-up of Minhyuns muscles contracting, his skin run with strings of thick white. He suddenly madly wanted to cum again, as if he had been bought to the second climax from just the image alone.

Donghos eyelids fluttered shut just in time to avoid being hit by it going straight past the tip of his nose, landing on his collarbones instead. His own body was plenty sweaty already, he could hardly mind the warm wet web trickling downwards his skin.

After that, Minhyun was physically too tired to move, his eyes opened to just barely and out of focus stare at Dongho, who now sat in the centre of his vision, straddling his lap, the closest they could both get to a hug.

They spoke only with their own breaths, yet somehow they still managed to understand one another fluently. Dongho leaned forward to lick Minhyuns neck, and also to get the residue embedded into his tongue off from him. It tickled, Minhyun laughed.

Dongho soon dropped his body into the other mans chest with a splat, too tired to upkeep a hug, too lonely without Minhyun to not be in touch with his skin. He leaned against Minhyun who had his laboured body twitching underneath the weight.

“You are heavy Dongho.” Minhyun winced, his smile was fake and made of pain. 

“Yeah? Well, deal with it.” Dongho refused to ever let go, sleeping on Minhyuns chest like a baby koala to a tree.

He didn’t want to let go, or ever lose the warmth of his friend. It was bound to be awkward afterwards, so Kang wanted to keep this moment for as long as he could.

Minhyun decided to revenge for his imprisonment. He made a sudden, terrified gasp that caused Dongho to jump scared. 

“Eh?” The shortest panicked trying to find clues on the other mans face that looked all red.

Then the tallest then let out a ghostly whimper before he shut his eyes to pretend that he wasn’t there anymore. Thus, Dongho panicked even more seeing the actor faint. 

His ear sat on top of Minhyuns chest as he desperately tried to hear out the pulse of a heartbeat. It wasn’t long before instead of that he heard the jerk snicker.

“Which part of this is funny to you?” Dongho felt like idiot for acting scared to death just now.

“You are silly, Dongho.” He spoke, but this time Dongho didn’t frown, he began to smile at himself too. “I guess you are right.” The other voice admit.

Minhyun stared at him and his pretty face for a long time, until he cupped the mans cheeks and bought him down to rest back on his chest again, where he quickly slept.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im back. hopefully were inching towards the end. sry for typos did not prooftead too well.

The bedroom from the last night was now brighter than before, the rays of morning sun slipped through the large glass windows and onto the legs of two sleeping bodies. The big toe of the slightly tanner leg suddenly twitched, the next second, the frightened eyes of Dongho were wide open.

He gasped realizing his new predicament – he had not gone home last night at all, and it was almost noon already. There was no way nobody had not noticed him missing back home. 

Dongho began to panic, sitting up and trying to grab for his clothes. Yet the clothes were nowhere in his sight. He didn’t remember ever ending up in the bed that night, and now he had this awful sting creeping up from his ass all the way to his mid-spine. His kicking eventually attracted Minhyun laying with him, the man mumbled a bit in his sleep telling Dongho to hush, so a slap on the shoulder is what fully woke him up.

The shortest was too panicked to realize that Minhyun was laying there dressed down to nothing, sleeping on top of the duvet and not under it, his smooth streamline skin bathed in the gold light of the sun.

Dongho carefully waddled his as cheeks across the mattress like he was holding a fragile bird egg between his thighs instead of simply dragging himself over to Minhyun, which was quite the eyebrow riser for the other guy. 

“Hwang, I am fucking dead! Dead, you hear?” He yelled his ear off, “I should have returned home by now! I promised I wouldn’t be out late!”

Minhyun only now had remembered about that shitty curfew Dongho had been placed under as punishment for his deceptions and lies. As Kang had predicted, the tall jerk wasn’t even worried in the slightest, choosing to lovingly flutter his short lashes at the shirtless Dongho instead.

Dongho had no luxury of waiting. He whined and shook Minhyun by the shoulders like a tiny twig with his strong arms, “Please! Think of something!”

“What do you want me to do?” Minhyun nagged right back. The guy had been greedy for just another minute with Dongho, but instead had only ended up getting the guy in trouble, oh well.

“You idiot!” Dongho voiced, “If I get grounded even more because of you—I won’t be able to see you anymore.” His yell stopped and faded into a sulk near the end, like he was shy of admitting he needed to be able to see Hwang.

Finally Minhyun started to use that big, yet empty head of his to try to think of a deus ex machina for this predicament.

“Let’s just kneel down and beg for our forgiveness.” He suggested as if it was such a simple thing.

Dongho looked distraught, because that would never work, as soon as Hwang would show his face to his strict aunt she would just cuss him right out the door. “Are you serious?” He snort.

“Yeah. I want to come clean and ask to be pardoned, so that way we could stay a thing.” Minhyun vent to Dongho.

“A thing.” Dongho accidentally repeated to himself what Minhyun had said, now they both were causelessly scratching the back of their necks.

Right then certain word lingered on Minhyuns lips, but he wasn’t brave enough to say it while Kang was looking directly at him – a boyfriend, a real one. It was obvious that they both liked each other, yet they were also both idiots which was so far the biggest hurdle in their developing relationship.

Dongho had suddenly dropped his tough guy act to stare at Minhyun, his eyes glowing like tiny stars. His heart suddenly beating quicker. Minhyun, that jerk, he never said that same word Dongho had at this point been begging to hear.

Dongho soon remembered the other sityation at hand and went back to panicking. “How do we even explain—this?” He couldn’t just to back to his aunt and tell her that him and Minhyun met up, let alone had a sleepover together. Dongho felt like he was slowly losing his mind, covering his ears. 

“I’ll take responsibility for us.” Minhyun became so selfless and noble in the eyes of his friend, but that was only until he opened his mouth again. 

“After all, your family likes me more than you.” He caused Dongho to break into a snarl, followed up by him snapping up his elbow at the other.

The two both looked up at the analog clock in Minhyuns room at the same time once they had heard it click after the hand had shifted over a new digit. They both started to rush.

“What should I do?” Dongho looked up to the man that had stood to stand on his knees in bed, focused only on his face.

“Go to your classes for now, I’ll think of something.” Minhyun instructed.

That same day Dongho showed up at his university, and he had managed to do so alive, but only because he had skipped ever going back to aunts home and had gone directly to class. 

Indirectly because of Minhyun, he walked slower on one leg than the other, because he had probably pulled a sore muscle or something back when they were practicing gymnastics on Minhyuns couch the last night. On his way to his usual meeting spot with his friends, Dongho was already trying to come up with a believable cover up story to tell them about how he had gotten injured after heroically saving a cat from a high tree. However, Donghos plan deleted itself from his head once the familiar voices of Jonghyun and that other evil man greeted him from behind sooner than expected.

“Hey, Kang!” Mingi waved. “Yo, guys.” Kang pretended to be happy to see friends faces. 

The four began to walk to some place else. The university had an outdoor area, tall trees grew in front of the buildings windows, park benches lined the walkways where busy students walked from one side of the building to the other every once in a while.

Mingi happily skipped ahead trying to be the first one to sit down in the split middle of one such a bench, crossing his legs and sitting pretty like some kind of a nymph. Jonghyun and Aaron opted to sit behind the bench in the grass where Dongho waddled over to join him.

Mingi snickered when seeing him walk, “Heh Dongho, why are you suddenly walking so funny?” He spoke about the limp and Dongho shrugged with the most indifferent.

“Hah, very funny Mingi. Very original.” Dongho scolded him for trying to crack lewd jokes with him. The jokes weren’t so funny now that they were actually quite spot on.

Jonghyun and Mingi now knew that the relationship between Minhyun and him had initially been fake, but only Aaron knew how Donghos feelings for that guy had actually become genuine.

“No, I am serious.” Mingi insisted, Dongho did look ill and everyone that saw it could confirm it.

Dongho sighed and made his voice super low, “Listen, between us – I sat on an upwards courter, got it?” That meant, no questions asked.

“Oh, by the way.” Dongho regained everyone else’s attention as soon as he changed the subject.

“I am might not be grounded anymore!” Grounded for lying to his family that is. Naturally everyone around him instantly cheered punching their fists into the air, but he himself was the only one that didn’t. 

“How?” Jonghyun stopped to scratch his chin, already sensing that something was off.

Dongho copied him, twiddling his index finger under his jaw as if something was dangling off it, he came off as more nervous and suspicious. Then he explained, “I might end up being dead instead.” 

“Oh, come on!” His friends all whined at him for being so overly dramatic. “Why?” They all demanded.

“Actually, I’ll just talk about it later. It’s a bit messy right now.” Dongho changed his mind about telling them anything at all, and especially not to Mingi, he glared at him. The crowd showed doubt with their nods.

Aaron suddenly cut in, thinking about something completely different, “I still can’t believe you blamed me for ratting you out and not this guy!” He was still upset, pointing directly at Choi.

Dongho nagged, “I am sorry dude, I legit had no idea.” Nothing Dongho would say could fix Aarons hurt pout.

“Hey, what do you mean by that!” Mingi saw this as a personal attack as well as a defamation of character. 

The two continued to argue until Dongho managed to zone himself out, looking ahead of himself with an empty look. Soon the others had noticed how out of everyone Kang had been the most quiet one, it was odd considering he rarely shut his trap before. But now it was like he was somewhere else in his mind – with someone else. Jonghyun eyed his friend who was less talkative today.

The men decided that it was time to get up and scatter, but before they split, Mingi decided to nag Dongho a little bit more today again.

“What have you been doing in that room all day anyway?” Mingi nod at him.

“You can’t be knitting in there all day, have you been meeting with ‘someone’ in secret?” He decided to interview him already suspecting that maybe the root of his friends concern was his pretend boyfriend again.

Dongho switched back to his normal, pompous self in a snap, “I’ve been working out at home, can’t you tell?”

The guy turned his hips to showcase the new muscle he had apparently built, raising his one ankle of from the ground so Mingi could notice that he was talking about his own ass rather than anything else. The result of a thousand squats.

Darkness had cast over Mingis eyes, he raised his leg for a kick the guys behind. Dongho let out a whimper that was a cross between a feminine sounding moan and a rodent caught in a trap.

Dongho caught his bruised cheek with his hand and acted like he was going to fall and die, but right then, a buzz happened inside of Donghos jean pocket and he forgot all about the stinging pain. He went to check his phone so quickly that Mingi had to stare, the tall guy secretly point over to Jonghyun with his eyes, to confirm he was seeing it too.

It was a text from Minhyun, the guy gave Kang some corny line about how much he misses him. So the shy guy covered his mouth with a wide palm thinking it would conceal his blushing cheeks – it did not.

He spoke, eyes still pointing down at his phone. “Alright guys, I think I’ll skip the last class for today.” Dongho told goodbye to his friends, despite just having met them, just so he could go to some place quiet and reply to the text.

“Kang, do you want to fail your classes?” Jonghyun judged his friend who was already falling back.

“Just put in a good word for me!” Dongho excused his heinous actions with a dumb grin. As he skipped away back inside the building, Mingi and Jonghyun both watched him with bright, wide eyes. 

“Looks like Minhyun and Dongho got back together.” Jonghyun was first one to say something. 

“Yeah, they definitely got – together, alright.” Mingi comment by then clasping his hands to evilly rub them together them.

“Dudee, come on! We don’t know if its even like that!” Jonghyun argued the implication. 

“Then why else would he refuse to tell us? Jonghyun, honey, it’s obvious.” Mingi acted smug.

Aaron cringed by what Mingi had said, shaking his shoulders as if there was something on them. The two others looked back at him as if he was more unwell than Kang.

“Aaron, what is up with you these days?” Jonghyun tilt his head, leaning closer to see sudden sweat on Aarons forehead. 

“Huh, what?” The shortest man became anxious as the thought of his friends figuring him out the same way they had figured out about Donghos fake boyfriend. He didn’t help his own case when he had opened his mouth to say the stupidest thing.

“Don’t you guys think that Dongho has become more masculine these days?” He asked the pair, who looked distraught by what he had said even though they had no idea what the fuck that even meant.

Like a magnet, Mingi pulled himself into Jonghyuns arm for protection. “Good grace! I told you, he has gotten so freaking scary recently!” The tallest almost cried.

“Aaron, did you perhaps eat something odd?” Jonghyun worried, speaking in a shaky voice. 

Jonghyun began reaching to touch it with his hand, but as if Aaron had some kind of an airborne illness, he slowly folded his fingers into a fist and cautiously pulled it back. Aaron grimaced at the two.

Minhyun turned up home without giving Dongho a ride back from school like usual, the guy had excused himself and said he would come to Minhyun after school on his own. The tall man suspected that Dongho could’ve run off again, but that thought was gone as soon he saw the poor bastard sitting on the edge of his own bed, snotty and red like a squished tomato.

This time Minhyun decided to approach the sniffling man slowly, he was sitting with arms in his lap, behind him in the bed laid a single airport sized bag of luggage. 

“What have you done now?” Minhyun sighed.

Dongho hiccupped and then let out a small sob just as he had turned to show his other cheek to Minhyun, there stood a palm shaped bruise caused by a hard slap. 

The slobbering man lowered his head to speak under a pout, “I tried to take care of it all by myself. I am sorry.” He had failed.

MInhyun was confused, “You went back home?”

Dongho raised his head and started to speak quickly, bargaining for Minhyun to believe him, “They were worried sick about me, and my aunt probably would’ve reported me missing.” Again, his voice became flat, “I got thrown out.”

“Huh?” Minyun couldn’t say he didn’t already expect that outcome coming. His family had been super harsh on him since he was the oldest son and was meant to be the best example for rest of his cousins.

“I couldn’t tell them where I had been, so they decided to kick me out until I remember.” Dongho cried, “I didn’t want to get you in trouble too.”

Minhyun smiled to cheer the guy up, reaching to pat his hair, “I ain’t afraid of trouble.” He calmed Dongho, who looked up at him with the biggest most tearful eyes. 

“I was hoping we could go together, so even if we got turned down, at least then we’d both be like this and not just you.” Minhyun laughed.

Dongho started to follow Minhyuns smile, laughing while trying to apologize, trying his best not to cry, “I am really sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Minhyun laughed. He pat the mans head for one last time before moving on to review the injury Dongho had sustained.

A single slap had made a puffy red spot on his cheek, what appears to have been a sharp edge of a ring had cut Donghos skin right under his eye. It wasn’t too bad, a band aid should cover it.

The teary eyed Dongho wiped his burning eyelids for one last time hoping the tears had stopped. He didn’t want to say anything right now, he had nothing more to add. Minhyun was comforting, of course he would allow Dongho to stay here for now. After all the guy had come here knowingly since he had no other place to go.

He attempted to undress himself, pull the dirty shirt he had worn since forever over his head. As soon as he tried to pull it over his head he hissed, the tight collar hurt his still throbbing cheek.

Minhyun laughed wholeheartedly, “You are such a cry-baby.” He tried to help Dongho pull it off without the collar touching his face. 

“Ow! Hey, ow!” Dongho broke off his helper after the shirt was off and he was only hidden behind an undershirt, he slapped his hand to his cheek to feel if it was bleeding or not. The mortified frown on his face made Minhyun giggle more.

Minhyun started to weirdly grin, his hand teasingly pulled on the bottom hem of Donghos grey undershirt, “Do you bruise just as easily elsewhere too?”

Dongho didn’t get the chance to put in a word before he gasped seeing Minhyun expose his stomach to cold air by lifting up the only shirt he had left and looking to see underneath it. Moments later the guy had gone down and shoved his head under the loose fabric like a cat trying to crawl into his clothes.

This absolute bastard. Dongho was still in the middle of grieving, tears in his eyes and all, and Minhyun was already being like this.

Dongho squealed feeling his hot breath pool under the shirt and the next moment Minhyun pulled out, his hair still perfectly in place. He was laughing at the other mans angry face, at least he wasn’t sad looking anymore. Dongho thought this guy was seriously going to bite him.

After the laugh was over, Dongho switched back to being serious again, “What should we do now?” He worried.

“I’ll get the bath running for you.” Minhyun spoke casually, not thinking about the big picture. “Huh?” Dongho raised his brow which caused him to feel his burning cheek again.

“What are you saying? Minhyun I just got kicked out of my home.” Dongho growled, “There are more important things than taking a bubble bath right now, you moron.”

“Is it my fault you got kicked out?” Minhyun shrug, this made Kang angrier, if the tall bastard had not kidnapped him that day, he would have made it home and never broken a rule.

“You nag so much you nag so much, you are turning into me.” Minhyun jokingly mocked Dongho for not being able to just suck it up. Which made the man even more mad.

Dongho wanted to yell, but his injured muscle punished him for trying to strain his vocal cords by hurting badly. “Ah.” He put his hand over it and made a tiny cry.

“How about we hop in together, teehee?” Minhyun cupped both of Donghos cheeks in one hand and tilt his chin up to look at the damages again.

Dongho had miraculously let go of his tensed frown, “Okay.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did this chapter in between just for fun yeet

Dongho looked big in the small bathtub, even more so with his knees carefully pulled up to somewhat hide from Minhyun who was sharing the same water with him. The tall guy was lounging with just one of his knees up, using it to rest his elbow on.

The two of them somehow had agreed upon keeping their dark colored underwear on underwater in order to not make it weird. Clearly, it was just two very good buds simply sharing a tub, nothing else much to it.

“That should do it.” Minhyun finished securing the small pale bandage over Donghos cheek. His hands stayed dry, he used a towel to wipe Donghos face.

“Thanks.” Dongho reached to touch it almost instantly with his wet hand, but stopped himself seeing how Hwang was already glaring.

What was only just a ring on that woman’s hand, felt like knuckle dusters straight to Donghos one of a kind, handsome face that was now sore and pink. A proper band aid covered up the split skin underneath the now slightly droopy eye bag. 

Done with providing first aid, now Minhyun was just sitting there and staring at the other shirtless man like the devil incarnate. Minhyun had a pleased smirk on his face, one that yelled ‘I own you now’ to his friend, as payment for all the times he had helped him. Dongho scoffed at the sly bastard, he believed that if he climbed Minhyuns ego and then jumped off from it, then it would be the worlds longest fall.

“Feeling better now?” Minhyun grin at his fix. “It still aches like hell.” Dongho complained.

“It must have been one hell of a slap then.” Minhyun laughed, for some reason the imagery amused him. “You should’ve seen it.” The martial artist raised his arm to gesture how apparently he had flown in the air.

Minhyun kept smiling at the man, finding the gestures funny, following his every movement. However, within a second those innocent smiles had turned into a suspiciously indecent glare. Dongho saw the change on his friends face, and became quiet knowing that the guy was probably about to do something extreme. Indeed, Minhyun shift his legs closer to Dongho bringing him in for a close hug.

Kang froze even more when feeling Minhyun cup his both cheeks. The warm, slow breath of the other exhaled down against his own lips. At that point a kiss was eminent, Minhyun was leaning into the other with all of his weight. Dongho put his hands on Minhyuns chest like paws, holding him off before the bastard could push him down in bath and drown him with that amount of strength. 

“Hey, we aren’t getting anything done like this.” Dongho reminded him, he was still stressed and unable to wind down enough to allow himself to be embraced. He was almost homeless now after all.

“Finee.” Minhyun laughed in apology, “Aren’t you at least glad you still got to shower after two days?” He playfully splashed some water around, implying that at least Kang was doing something right.

Dongho made a desperate grin, he was hiding something from Minhyun, yet not for too long, “Actually before I got here, I kinda forgot that I already showered earlier today.”

“At your aunts home?” Minhyun did note how Dongho smelled fairly clean earlier when he had crawled into his shirt. “Uh, no.” Dongho stuttered.

He followed up, “I did it at Aarons place.” Minhyun raised his stray, brittle eyebrow hairs further up his forehead, “Huh?”

Dongho let out a labored sigh, “I just didn’t want to inconvenience you anymore, alright?” The stressed man started to speak like he was doing a speech, “I’ve been living on your neck for this long. I felt bad for asking you to take me in again, so I tried to sort something with Aaron instead, yet it fell through.”

Minhyun felt almost offended that Kang would ever think such lowly of himself, “Dongho, you know that you do not bother me, right?”

He paused, “—For the most part.”

The eyes of the shortest began to sparkle and shine, “Really? Does that mean I can stay?” Minhyun mocked him, “Are you serious? I thought I had already made it obvious already.”

“Th-thank you.” Dongho wanted to hug him, but the way he had folded his legs didn’t allow him to. Maybe for the better, Dongho didn’t want to look like a big cry-baby before his crush once more.

Despite the joy filled resolve, Minhyuns kind laughter quickly turned into a jealous growl, “By the way, why did Aaron turn you away?” 

“Uhh, so about that—” Dongho recalled his memory by looking up at the ceiling to collect his thoughts.

When Dongho came to that guy, Aaron had just arrived back from his classes, and was now in the middle of binge watching TV shows on his laptop, in his bed wearing only leopard print boxers, and deliciously sucking off each one of his fingers that were coated in cheese puff dust one by one. 

There was a kick on his door, but no word of who was on the other side. Aaron didn’t assume it could be any of his friends, as he had moved out to this single bedroom flat literally just a few days ago, meaning none of his friends even knew where he lived yet. Nobody – except for his only best friend.

The guy panicked thinking it was his landlord or something. He was barely dressed, the windows in the room were shut and the whole place reeked of stale food and farts. Aaron yelled at the door asking the stranger to wait while he put on a comically long mud green bathrobe that wouldn’t even shut properly over the chest.

He came out at the door, holding the robe slightly parted on purpose to show off a little breast at the door in case it was actually the elderly lady who had rented this shithole to him, hoping to impress. Once he had opened the door he was almost blown away seeing Dongho standing right outside of it.

“Kang!” Aaron jolt up seeing Dongho pout and sniff at him in the doorway, already trying to brute force his way inside. “What happened?” He freaked.

“Nothin’, can I just come in?” Dongho spoke, he looked beat up and freezing, and that sad mug of his made Kwak want to cry too.

Aaron held him back from pushing past the door with his feet. “Obviously it is not just nothing—you look miserable.” His words stabbed Dongho.

“I don’t have time to argue, not with you too.” Dongho barely managed not to yell. 

“For fuck sakes, tell me what happened first?” Aaron worried too much to let him in without an explanation.

“No way. You are going to be angry, just like last time.” Dongho sulk, remembering how his best mate had stormed off once hearing about him liking Minhyun, who Aaron despised. This was all because of that guy again.

Yet, despite everything Dongho had still ended up crawling right back to Hwang to be with him even though he was a total prick – and finally Dongho had gotten kicked out of his house because of it. Aaron wouldn’t be pleased to hear all that, and Dongho didn’t feel like hearing his scolding on top of everything. This was already officially his lowest point in life.

“You know that I am not just gonna kick you out!” Aaron promised him. He even switched to English for his next inspiring words, “I am looking out for you, we are whole brothers!”

“Move aside and let me in, ‘hole brother.” Dongho didn’t care and pressed through the door anyways, “Do you have an ice pack?” He requested one thing.

“Fuck you, dude.” Aaron groaned, forgetting to hold his robe tied. Dongho had walked in and instantly sat down on Aarons bed as if it were his own.

“What the hell happened to you Dongho?” Aaron sighed, like a father disappointed in his son.

“I fucked up.” Dongho suddenly sobbed like he had been holding in, his face in his hands, “I lied to my aunt again about staying out overnight. So she kicked me out again.”

“For how long?” Aaron spoke. “I don’t know. Forever?” Dongho whined.

It seemed like a cruel punishment, but he explained what had happened, “I am an adult, Kwak. It was only out of pity that I was even allowed to leech off from my aunt for that long.”

Aaron recognized the red mark reminiscent of a human hand print, embedded into Donghos cheek. Now dried up, small amount of smeared blood had made a short streak towards the guys ear when he had initially wiped it. He looked like such a sad sight. The short male approached him with a cool can of soda, Dongho used it in place of an ice pack.

“Thanks.” Dongho sighed. Aaron stood there, not knowing how else to help his friend, but eventually Dongho made a suggestion himself.

“Can I stay with you bro, for a few days at least?” Dongho sounded like he had already given up everything.

Aaron hesitated to agree, because of course he wanted to allow his friend crash with him if he was this desperate, but then again having a crush on his roommate could be problematic for him.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Dongho began to lift off his own shirt out of nowhere. Aaron freaked out, “Woah! Woah! What are you doing dude? You don’t have to do all that just to convince me!” 

Aaron jumped around to frantically wave his head around the room and look everything but his hot shirtless friend sitting ready on his bed. Dongho started to whine, “What you on about? I need to use your shower first.” He said while he rubbed his numbed cheek.

“Alright, sure. Damn.” Aaron dared to peek for a second and regretted it instantly, he literally felt his insides shrivel up from the sight of his crush sitting pretty with his top off.

Dongho mistook Aarons frown for something else. There was a sad tone in his voice, “Are you uncomfortable with me staying?” Donghos heart dropped realizing that this probably meant that Aaron wasn’t going to let him stay over like he had expected.

Aaron wanted to shake his head and say how he indeed wanted Dongho to stay, but for his own sake he nod. “I am sorry, I really can’t afford to let you do that.” Aaron apologized, trying to come up with some bullshit excuse at the same time.

How could he possibly live with this punk, Aaron wouldn’t be able to study while being too pre-occupied with trying to avoid thinking about getting himself pegged against a wall like a pincushion by his own best friend at every living moment.

“I’d have to hide you from my landlord.” He nervously chuckled and Dongho nod in understanding.

“Damn. I guess I’ll really have to ask Minhyun then.” Dongho felt like crying from stress already. He liked Minhyun and he didn’t want that guy to think of him as nothing more than a pest and a leech if he returned to beg for a place to live. 

All other people who could lend a couch to Kang had already been crossed out of his list. Because of his imprisonment at aunts home, he hadn’t really spoken to anyone else in a long time aside from his three friends he met at school. Mingi had already texted him a no before he had even asked, and Jonghyuns mom had texted from her sons phone demanding Kang to never contact her son ever again.

“Can I still use your bathroom?” Dongho stressed his voice, implying he had to pee like mad as well. Aaron didn’t think long and just wanted the shirtless man out of his sight before he’d pop. 

“Take your time.” Aaron told him so the guy wouldn’t get the chance to piss this place up.

A relieved Dongho jumped from the bed and grabbed onto his hefty suitcase that he had rolled inside with him, and then rolled it into the bathroom to have a change of clothes from it inside.

As soon as Dongho shut and locked the door Aaron threw himself into his bed where Dongho had sat just a second ago to start trashing in the sheets like a cat, trying to sniff out the sweaty musk left in the sheets by the other man, while also to have a place where to cry.

Inside of the bathroom while undressing, Dongho didn’t think it would be too rude of him to borrow not only soap, but also some of the other stuff Aaron used to make himself smell good, especially before meeting Minhyun later today. The short guy didn’t keep a lot of stuff around yet since he had moved in just recently. Regardless of the fact, Dongho began to poke his nose around to find where that bastard kept his strange smelling ointments and dubiously nameless creams anyway.

Dongho squat to open a closed cabinet under the sink expecting to find something there, but he only found an abundance of cleaning products inside. Yet right before he gave up and shut the cabinet, something hidden caught his eye. Dongho pulled out a vertical standing, back facing box tucked away in the furthest corner of the furniture as if the owner hated it. When turned around, there was a see through plastic cover at the front that showed exactly what was in the box.

Dongho pulled it out to help his confusion, “Is this Aarons ex-girlfriends?” He scratched his head looking inside at a silicone phallic menacingly standing upwards inside of the box. He figured that Aarons ex had probably misplaced it and then forgot to take it back.

He shook the box to his ear, as one does. “It’s still sealed.” Dongho cleverly concluded. 

Seeing how the box had never been opened. He simply shrugged his shoulders and bought his luggage bag over, deciding that Aaron probably wouldn’t even notice it gone too if he took it.

As soon as Dongho came from the bathroom Aaron jumped from his bedside as if he had been waiting for it. He looked panicked, his thumbs hidden inside of his palms after he had picked them sore.

“Mind if I stick around until I dry down?” Dongho wore only a tee and shorts, he had borrowed a towel to stop his still wet hair from dripping over his wide shoulders.

“Yeah? Yeah.” Aaron tried to look everywhere but at his soaked wet, dripping, hot best friend. “I’ll go shower too.” Aaron excused himself and fled into the bathroom as soon as he could to hide.

The ventilation inside of the windowless showering room was bad, the air was hot and damp, the mirror fogged. Aaron slid down to his knees back pressed against the door and tried to hold himself from sobbing imagining naked Kang using the shower a minute ago.

After a minute, his eyes shot up in horror finally realizing something he had not thought about before allowing the dude to take a shower in his home. Aarons terrified neck slowly screwed to the side to look at that same cabinet under the sink.

With shaky fingers, he opened it fearing that Dongho had already seen it and it had been too late, but when instead he saw an empty spot in place of the not so well hidden box, he absolutely froze in horror. Aaron collapsed on the floor in defeat where he proceeded to rock himself back and forth, with his eyes wet and glossy, and a thumb sucked into his mouth.

By the time Aaron had finished ‘showering’ Dongho was already putting on his outdoor shoes to go catch a bus to Minhyuns place. He saw his friend exit the bathroom and saluted him, turning around to unlock the door for himself to stop being a bother.

“Wait.” Frightened, Aaron stopped him, “Dongho, have you seen my—?” The boy stuttered, but no matter how hard he tried to move his lips, he couldn’t say it. Never – not to those big innocent eyes staring at him.

“Your what?” Dongho had zero idea. Aaron stood there for so long, gripping his fist so hard that a vein had popped from his neck.

“Nevermind.” He gave up.

“Good luck with everything!” Aaron shoved Dongho outside and kicked his whole damn briefcase out the door and to hell as well before locking the same guy out.

Aaron cursed him, Dongho was a bastard and a thief. Because of him, Aaron would have to order the same thing again. It was expensive, let alone getting it to his house was embarrassing enough by itself as the delivery guy had asked to confirm what was in the package before handing it over, because Aaron had messed up by incorrectly writing out his own new address.

The guy slouched to his knees and stared at the floor in grief, his fingertips dragging across the floor before all motion in his body ceased and he became a solidified like a statue.

“So that is how I ended up here.” Dongho told, explaining why he had ended up in Minhyuns house out of no where.

Of course, he had been retelling everything aside from mentioning the little souvenir that he had bought with, which was now out of the box and instead was inside of a wet sock somewhere in his luggage. 

Minhyun had fun listening to the way Dongho retold things from his memory, but to be fair he wasn’t really listening. Just looking at Dongho speak gave him peace.

He extended his hand to touch Donghos underwater. The shortest man became silent from telling his tale, eyes suddenly locked on the tiny fingers that spread in-between his own.

“I am happy with where you ended up.” Minhyun tried to be corny. Dongho snort in response, pretending he hated being told such a thing.

“I ended up with you.” Dongho spoke through gritted teeth, implying that this was the worst thing that had ever happened to him, but Minhyun knew he didn’t mean it. He knew the truth, the tallest saw through Donghos act.

“Well,” Dongho kept speaking after seeing the other man pout, “At least I am not sleeping with the fishes.” 

“Haha, yeah.” Minhyun sweat for no reason at all.

Even when Dongho was mean to him and hid how he felt from Minhyun. The guy still smiled and nod to his every word as it were the truth. Because of that, Dongho felt so guilty. From the first time they met, he had always been liar and a coward. How did Minhyun ever start liking him, out of everyone else in the world, the guy had no clue.

“Hey, I am sorry.” Dongho randomly spoke. 

“For what?” Minhyun put his face into a curious tilt. Right then, very carefully Dongho moved his body forwards in the bath and hugged Minhyun between his legs.

The short man wished to thank him this way, he didn’t know how else. Dongho expressed his affection by bringing his lips to Minhyuns ear and making the poor attempt to leave a whisper voicemail in it.

“For everything, I guess.” Dongho shut his eyes, the moment he did so he flashed his teeth when suddenly remembering how he had treated Minhyun the first time they had met.

“You can’t just be sorry for everything.” Minhyun laughed at the impossible. Dongho felt even more bad when Minhyun was so nice to him about it.

The bath water was still warm and foamy, dripping off from their arms and necks as they hugged. The larger man attempted to back out of the odd hug, but when he tried he ended up accidentally slipping right back into Minhyuns chest causing the tall man to laugh at such a clumsy display. 

Dongho stared at the other man with the biggest preys eyes once feeling a set of hands hold onto his spine, they had saved him from drowning just a second ago. Minhyun was starting to grin at the other man, it was a sinister and evil grin, one Hwang used against Dongho to either mock him or plan something perverse.

Dongho made a disgusted grunt as a defense mechanism and got away. The two sat in silence again, only this time Kang was actually putting in mild effort to wash his limbs off. Minhyun appeared to be here only to watch him like some kind of a creep instead. Yet the more Kang ignored Minhyuns mischievous glances, the larger the dark cloud of thought in that mans brain grew.

Minhyun had suddenly interrupted the other by now slowly inching his weight towards him. In the end, he had sat on the lap of the larger man as if it were a seat. Minhyun looked down at the guy who was even shorter than him now. 

Still clueless, Dongho blinked his pretty lashes up at Hwang, who had right there decided to hold his jaw. Minhyun stared in awe at the geometry of the mans body, his wide shoulders and rounded hips made his waist look small in comparison. All of it was flooded with water, rolling over every curve and crease of the impressive body type belonging to the martial artist.

Kangs naked and tattooed chest became glued to Minhyuns. From radiating such heat they instantly felt much hotter, as if the water around them had become boiling hot.

It finally clicked for the shortest. Donghos ass cheeks clenched shut in fear and self defense, “Hwang, what the heck are you doing?” Dongho understood the meaning of this – the word malicious, was written all over the face of the same guy that was straddling his thighs.

“What do you mean?” Minhyun put on his best fake hurt voice, “You are allowed to hug me, but it’s wrong for me to hug you back?”

Maybe Dongho didn’t hate it, but for the sake of the little left of his pride, he gritted his teeth as if he were angry, “This isn’t how you hug, you perverted bastard.” He scold the needy man trying to put moves on him in middle of his calm bath.

Minhyun suddenly went from having his palms cupping Donghos face cheeks to grabbing his whole head and pushing it ear against his own chest, locking his arms at the back as if he was keeping it safe. 

Dongho froze, his eyes went big the moment he felt his face pressed up against the flat chest of the other and right then not a cell in his body dared to move. His heart had instantly exploded. 

But that wasn’t all, Minhyun then spoke in the most threatening, scariest voice that Dongho had ever heard him make, “You expect me to stare at you washing up and not get excited?”

Dongho might of gotten spooked there for a second, but he knew better not to make himself a fool again and give in to this mans empty threats. He jolt his head out from the forced position and pointed his chin up, speaking with a sharp, demanding tone.

“That is not my problem, you punk. Go and suck your own damn chode.” Dongho barked to get back at the other man for being snarky.

“How dare you.” Minhyuns eyes had fogged red with the spirit of battle.

In retaliation Minhyun began to angrily splash his hands in water aiming directly for Donghos face. The other man did the same to him. Water flew high in all directions, raining puddles on the bathroom floor.

Out of nowhere instead of fighting back Hwang, Dongho fought to defend himself from the blows of his attacker. The next second he began to scream in hellish agony, “Wait, there’s foam in my eye! There is foam in my eye!” He repeated.

“Dongho!” Minhyun cried out in panic. 

He ended up hopping backwards to free Dongho and help him splash water on his face to rinse the eyes out, by doing so he somehow managed to put even more foam water into his friends eyes.

“I am blind!” The short man yelled with his eyes shut. He trashed in all directions, causing even more confusion and panic.

Minhyun was so afraid of hearing Donghos pained screams that he did what anyone smart would do in this kind of situation – grab and hold Donghos head underwater for him to drown in-between his own knees.

It wasn’t even a second later until Minhyun had realized his mistake, and yanked the gasping and red Dongho out of the water. Largely disorientated and claiming to have seen the light to the other side, Dongho wriggled like an eel to get out of the tub head first.

Minhyun stood up in the bath and covered his mouth with both hands watching as Donghos cheek hit the floor and slide like a flat tire dragging against the pavement. The guy just kind of laid there without moving, he only knew groaning.

All Dongho could think of right now was that, maybe he should have not been so harsh on Minhyun.


	23. Chapter 23

The day was late now and they never got things sorted. Instead they both put all worries on top of a high shelf far at the back of their minds and ended up forgetting for now. Dongho was able to not worry about anything while he laid next to Minhyun, they both fell asleep cuddling in bed even before their bodies had dried up.

Dongho opened his eyes in middle of his sleep, his body had made him awake just so he could look and adore the man facing him, sleeping sound asleep. A tingly warm feeling stung Donghos cheeks, heat raised up and he realized he had been blushing from just staring.

The guy wanted to beat himself up for it, but at the same time he had never felt so at peace. Despite it all, he still couldn’t believe that they both had ended up here laying down in the same bed and hugging with their arms around one another. What were they exactly – Dongho knew they should be boyfriends, but he hadn’t confessed yet. Even though Minhyun already knew that Dongho liked him, and pretty much treated him as his boyfriend already, Dongho was scared to admit to these things.

Dating someone was a big thing for him, as he had never wanted to date before since just simply hooking up with people for one night did fine for him too. That was the main reason why Dongho had even made this deal to pretend with Minhyun in the first place. But now he was the one pretending that he wasn’t attracted to Minhyun in every way, actually in love with him. He couldn’t say it all because he was a coward.

Minhyun wasn’t pressuring him, he was patient around Dongho, because he already knew how he was. But perhaps he was expecting too much from the other, just like his female friend Eunwoo had said, he was too infatuated with Dongho to realize that the guy could break his heart.

Kang felt bad thinking about that, but a part of him was also hesitant to move forward because he was insecure, he had never been with a guy before and Minhyun probably had the highest expectations. Dongho thought that he would make a horrible boyfriend anyways, as he had never been a proper one to anyone.

The man scoot closer to Minhyun whose arms had been previously placed on top of his waist, now dangled far over him. Dongho arched his own arm back to reach for Minhyuns and bend it so that it would again fit nicely hugging his back.

Dongho winced his eyes shut and went back to sleep again, after a few moments Minhyun opened his own eyes. He had been awake this whole time, pretending to be asleep in order to see what Dongho would do.

Luckily, the man couldn’t read Donghos mind. But still his guesses about what the guy must have been thinking were somewhat correct.

Minhyuns clammy, nervous palm clasped into the back of Dongho where it had been placed, there it was feeling the strength of his spine. Minhyun was staring at the mans calm sleeping face and tried so hard to hold himself from kissing him, he didn’t want to wake the guy up just to ask for it either, so he let the blooming flowers in the pit of his stomach wither away as he could only look on.

He continued to watch him, up until Dongho opened his mouth to murmur things in his sleep, Minhyun listened carefully and by the low grunts concluded that the jerk was having a weird dream only seconds after shutting his eyes.

For a second there Minhyun thought he had heard his own name being called twice in a low and drowsy voice, and that was when he decided to hinge his eyelids shut like with a lock and force himself to go back to sleep before he could change his mind about not waking Dongho and kiss him breathless again.

Next day at the university, as soon as Dongho had separated from his friends that he had met in class, or at least, ran far enough from them, he collapsed his body into a squat and sighed hard at the floor in both relief and also demise. 

The guy now stood only metres away from the library entrance, but for some reason he feared going in. The thing was, he had not come to study, the true reason behind it was more sinister than just that.

“Fuck.” He cursed at least a dozen times in his head while just sitting there all nervous and heart racing.

Dongho had not told Jonghyun, nor Mingi, about him and Minhyun yet – definitely not yet. He was absolutely positive that apart from Kwak, the rest had no clue. So he was safe from whatever mockery or cruel joke could be used against him as far as he kept it a secret until it was sorted out.

However now he had back peddled on that thought. Maybe he should’ve just told his friends that him and Minhyun were real now already, because then he could’ve asked them for an advice without actually having to resort to what he was about to do now.

After at least fifteen minutes of suspiciously sitting around outside, standing in front of a vending machine to pretend he was making a selection, birdwatching through the window, and later pretending to ask for useless building directions to other students by speaking Japanese, he finally decided to actually go in.

He took another big breath before anxiously walking towards the universities library. He snuck in and instantly looked suspicious not only to the library staff, but also all the other students lining the rows of chairs and tables with their laptops.

He completely skipped the library computers, the monitors faced the staff behind anyone using them. It was already it of the question.

Instead Kang threaded with caution before entering the maze of bookshelves that stretched high to the ceiling, casting less light further down the alley of books that he trailed.

He didn’t even know where what he searched for would be, but at the same time it was too dangerous to easily ask staff. Dongho finally stood at the section that he believed would be the right one, a cross section of medicine and biology. Suddenly his heart jumped to his throat.

It could’ve been so easily to just answer all of his questions by looking them up online, but he didn’t have his own computer and his phone was so busted at this point that it could barely even handle calls.

If Minhyun caught Dongho watching anything indecent on his laptop for research, then that jerk would absolutely laugh him into the grave. Dongho had no choice – it had to be the most despicable thing he has done thus far.

If he was going to get laid with Hwang, then he at least wanted to know how likely he could possibly die due to dick.

Only after he had looked back over his own shoulder at least twice, Dongho silently took a random book from a shelf, praying that it would at least have a section covering the information he actually needed and not about all kinds of ugly warts he could suddenly grow on his genitals if he didn’t wrap it.

He skimmed through the pages, yet the book just so happened to be bound in the middle right on the page about the dilation of the cervix. Dongho made a frightened grimace and slammed the book shut.

Mingi hopped his heel back in surprise after the tip of his nose was almost snipped off by the clamped shut book. He had been staring over Donghos shoulder for quite some time now.

“What in the fuck. How did you find me?” Dongho cursed so hard he almost spit from his mouth and directly into the face of the guy.

“I knew you would be here too Dongho!” Mingi did a cute cheer, not ever explaining to Dongho whatever the hell he even meant by that.

“Here too?” The shorter one repeated. Donghos eyebrows stood up away from his skin as a pattern of angry lines now decorated his forehead.

“Wait, why are you here as well then?” Dongho shot back, clutching the book to his chest so its cover couldn’t be read. Mingi started to look at all the books in the same shelf instead, affirmatively nodding at the interesting titles.

“Oh, just picking out for something to read Aaron to sleep with during lectures.” He joked, but it sounded like he was being serious. Either way Dongho didn’t like the way the guys laugh sounded afterwards, all teasing and evil.

The jerk had probably seen him enter and then causelessly followed him here. Yet, Instead of lashing out on Mingi for it and burying his body under a pile of books, Dongho instead tried to look at him as his beacon of hope.

Mingi froze in place, pupils turned small when Dongho dropped both of his hands on his shoulders. 

“Bro. Can I borrow your laptop for a day?” He stared straight into his friends unwilling eyes. 

“For what?” Mingi forcedly smiled, as if he was being held at gun point. Dongho drooped his lip for a second, before saying something he had never said before today, “To study for the test.”

Mingi snort and proudly crossed his arms. He spoke after the loudest sigh, “You are with Minhyun now again, right?”

Dongho flinched and jumped a step back. “What makes you think that, aha.” He did his best to pretend he hadn’t been sucking that guy.

Mingi raised his hand and waved it at Donghos face, as if he was checking to see if the mans pupils could still react to light and movement to make sure Kang was working. “Hello? We know you got kicked out again. Where else would you go?” Mingi reminded him.

Dongho opened his mouth to lie and say he had been at houses of his closest friends, in hopes that at least Aaron, his best friend, would cover for him, but Mingi destroyed all his hopes and dreams at once. 

“Aaron came from Jonghyuns house this morning, don’t try to tell me you hanged out with either of them.” Mingi was so scary, it was like he had read Donghos mind just now. Now the guy had no alibi.

“Well, heh.” Dongho scratched his stubbly chin and started to slowly walk backwards down the aisle of books. Mingi realized that with each passing second the distance between him and Kang were growing at an accelerated rate, “Are you trying to run away from me or somethin’?”

Both of their eyes became round with alert, and before Mingi knew it Kang was already sprinting his loud feet across the entire library to flee from him without admitting that him and Minhyun had become—well, him and Minhyun.

“This jerk!” Mingi couldn’t believe he had made the guy into a runner, as if this whole interaction had come right out of a comedy flick.

Minhyuns laugh is what greeted Kang first thing into his car, almost like every other Time. There a frightened Dongho fiddled in his seat with a book bag two times the size it used to be when Minhyun had initially taken him to university that same morning. Hwang couldn’t avert his eyes at the possible contraband.

Dongho opened his large bag to fix it and as soon as he did a web of laptop charger wires quickly managed to dangle out of the bag before he could throw them back in. He had borrowed a laptop from another poor student before heading out.

“Did you steal that?” Minhyun came to a quick conclusion. “I’m borrowing it from a friend.” Dongho defended himself like his honour depended on it. 

“You could’ve just asked for mine.” Minhyun grinned at the other boy. Dongho pout up a mean lip, looking out the passenger side window purposely away from Hwang.

“Yeah, but yours doesn’t have cool programs installed.” He spoke with guilt and that way in just a few seconds Minhyun was able to unlock Donghos mind. The bastard was definitely going to watch porn on it. 

“You are really not getting too lucky with your dates these days, huh?” Minhyun mocked.

Dongho growled at him in the car even though he knew the guy was only joking. Kang had no dates, he had lost interest in anyone else, but Minhyun – that jerk.

Minhyun continued to mindlessly smile, not saying a word, however sometimes his silence was even more annoying than him talking. Dongho shut his eyes hoping to forget about his existence for at least two quiet minutes.

“You know you always have me, right?” Minhyun chimed in, implying how Dongho didn’t need a laptop to access such content. The shortest instantly stared away again to hide his red cheek and by doing so exposed his bright earlobe instead.

“Shut up, pervert.” Dongho grunt, steam flew from his nostrils.

After a brief silence, Minhyun began speaking soon again, “So, have you decided to ask for your families forgiveness yet?”

“Forgiveness? You think they would ever trust me again after I’ve told so many lies?” Dongho pleaded, fearful to return to his home after the time of him running away. 

“At this point, I am surprised that you still have trust in me.” Dongho groaned to himself, his voice suddenly lower than the last time he spoke.

Minhyun had no idea how to relate, in his whole life he had never feared his parents ever since he played a very little role in their busy lives, to actually be around for most of his childhood. For Dongho meeting his seemed like the end of the world, like he was on death row.

“Why should I not just invite them to sit down with the two of us and discuss it?” Minhyun spoke like he was suddenly some kind of a businessman. “I can just buy you off from them, can’t I?” He spoke.

“Hwang, you are out of your mind!” Dongho cussed at the other man for even implying such a thing, “You can’t just solve things like that!”

“Why shouldn’t I be able to?” Minhyun eas obviously joking around this time, even though he was pretty sure he could actually buy Dongho if he wanted to, given that his parents would probably be the ones paying him just to have someone else take the idiot off their hands.

“Don’t.” Dongho flinched his hand on top of Minhyuns elbow as he drove, a gesture that earned him a swift eyebrow rise from other the guy.

Dongho pulled back and returned to sit properly in his seat again, “I don’t want you to get yelled at, or blamed, or insulted, or—” Dongho caught his breath, “Just leave it to me, I will sort it out somehow.”

“Hopefully you do before the money allocated for your next semesters tuition runs out.” Minhyun painfully choked out a suppressed laugh. Dongho turned his head to stare in horror, tears already welling up in his eyes.

Minhyun appreciated that Kang was trying to take responsibility for once, yet in his head he had already decided that he was going to help the miserable guy.

Without telling him why, Minhyun stopped the car right before reaching their home to let Dongho out and head upstairs to the apartment on his own. Kang asked him why, he was nosey. Minhyun just told him that he was seeing someone later.

Before hopping out of the car Dongho looked sad, clingy sad almost. Minhyun was being coy and avoiding answering about who he was supposed to meet and when he would be back home to make dinner for the two. So Dongho got all sorts of messed up thoughts in his head.

Was he seeing someone else, had he already stopped liking Dongho right before the dude was about to ask him out? Dongho squint his eyes like a baby right before breaking into a sob, only this time his eyes remained fairly dry ever since the bath incident.

Minhyun sucked his lips in and smiled with the corners of his mouth, unbuckling his belt for a second just so he could place a kiss on Donghos forehead. He pulled back to see if it had fixed it, but Dongho looked just as devastated if not more. Unsatisfied with just that, the guy lounged himself at the tallest to kiss him for real.

The two figures met in the middle behind the dark tinted windows of the car, holding in place for long seconds before Minhyun had to let go. It was hard to, the out of nowhere kiss had instantly gotten him heated. He was about to abandon his pans and just throw himself and the other guy in the backseat, but the sound of passing cars nearby made him reconsider.

He leaned back in his seat to stare forward, covering his wet mouth with the back of his palm while he looked like he was contemplating something really hard. Being around Kang was starting to become harder like this. All he wanted to do was to just seize the guys body already, yet the mean bastard only kept kissing him instead of confessing to confirm that what they felt right now was mutual.

Dongho kept watching him in the same desperate manner, until he was starting to feel bad, believing he had been rejected. That wasn’t it, Minhyun knew that wasn’t it. He was barely holding on from clawing his nails into his chest at this point.

“I’ll see you later.” Minhyun looked away, cleared his throat and pretend to fix his hair. 

“Ung.” Dongho nod in defeat, realizing he ultimately could not convince Minhyun to stay with him.

The short man headed to the building elevators by himself, slumped over and pouting like a kid after a lost race all the way to the floor of Hwangs residence. His stomach was grumbling already, but that punk had said he would not be home before dinner, meaning Dongho was either starving or burning down a kitchen today.

After he made it indoors, first thing he did was let himself fall face flat into Minhyuns bed. The sheets hadn’t been changed yet, his side of bed still very much held his strong fragrance. Dongho laid there allowing himself to suffocate, until he learned to poke his nose up when remembering something.

Donghos nervous eyes shift over to the laptop still in his school bag, then they darted over to his sealed and locked luggage bag which he had bought in. His brain was slowly putting the two together, additionally to the fact that Minhyun wasn’t home and wasn’t going to be home anytime soon.

He sat up to hug his arms around his own knees, thinned his lips and finally shifted his round eyeballs from left to right, as if before crossing a dangerous intersection.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know i already put a disclaimer at the very start of the fic so if this doesnt apply to you just ignore this,,, but since this is a nsfw centered chapter i 100% know that the person who im referring to in this will definitely see it so saying it again; fic authors are obviously part of the fandom so we see everything uve been doing, so if ure a nu'est anti and for the past two years youve done nothing but belittle the other members that aren't ur fave then get ur clammy hands off your puny little cock right now and stop wanking to my fics,, like just go watch pornhub or something else this is not for you THIS IS NOT FOR YOUUU loool
> 
> anyways sorry to everyone else that just had to read that i had to get it out of my system its something that has bothered me for a looong time 
> 
> heres flower emojis to make up for it   
> 🌹🥀🌺🌻💐🌸🌼🌻🥀🌷🌼🥀

The following night was a stormy one, drops of rain quietly tapped against the windows of Minhyuns bedroom, cold wind howled behind the walls made of glass.

The strangers laptop, covered in old and peeling stickers, had been abandoned on top of the crumpled sheets. Dongho had ditched all of his plans for the end of the day and turned all the lights off, because he didn’t like the feeling of being in a high-rise building during a thunderstorm.

The flashes of light stabbed all through the city, smiting rooftops and hills far away. Minhyun had still not shown home after all, so Dongho assumed the worst – he was staying overnight with someone else.

Of course, Dongho couldn’t stop him if he had done it because they weren’t actually dating, but it still hurt. The shortest wondered if this is how Hwang had felt like back when Dongho had turned him down initially, and if back then Minhyun had felt just as miserable as him now. Struggling with these kind of feelings alone us what made this night seem so long. Dongho had easily become sad.

His body squirmed up against the sheets that still smelled of the other man, musky cologne was forever embedded into those white pillows. Dongho rubbed his face against them, arching his neck up to take in more. 

At some point his body had been starting to feel weird, but it had been that way for a while tonight now. His bare, glazed sweating legs crossed and slid over one another stretching the sheet along with them to the point it could rip apart. His hips rode up and down while imagining Minhyuns heat behind him, holding him in place and not letting him go. He wanted to feel that, but real. Yet at the worst possible time, Minhyun was away.

Dongho finally found the strength to pull his face out of the pillows, he winced at his phone screen when it lit up bright inside of his small palm. He began to type with one hand, making typo after typo until he hit send.

“Minhyun, are you seeing someone tonight?” Dongho wrote to his friend.

The slow response time was making Dongho desperate. He made a pained groan, dragging his front slow and long up against Minhyuns pillow he had taken in-between his thighs.

Finally, the screen lit up to display a response from Hwang that read simply, “Yeah, why?” 

Dongho no longer had the power to type, he dipped his face down and while not even looking at the screen, angrily mashed his thumbs across the bright display hoping Minhyun would still understand. The screen filled up with incoherent spam of symbols and characters, but at one point Dongho had hit the button to call.

Minhyun picked up only after three rings, he was welcomed with Dongho panting heavily next to the phone. “Dongho?” He sounded worried.

“Minhyun,” Dongho called his friends name out weak and slowly, as if he were too tired and ill. His exhales confused Minhyuns ears, until he realized that what he was hearing were moans, desperate ones calling out for help.

“Can you come home please, Minhyun?” Dongho winced, catching his hand on his stomach. He grind the pillow through the gap of his thighs, but it was unbearably not enough.

A hesitant silence ensued, meanwhile Dongho had to roll over in bed trying to wriggle away from the heat. By then his tormented breaths had already convinced Hwang. 

“I—I am on my way.” Minhyun appeared to have a stuttering moment, even he was shaken at this point. 

Dongho brightened up a bit, a tiny grin populated his face, “You are coming?” Minhyun reassured him over the line, “Hng. I am coming home now.”

The shortest listened carefully to what was going on over the phone. He could hear the sounds of someone getting into a car. The car door beeped when it was left open, even then over the phone the thunder over the city could be heard well. There was a thud and all outside sounds became muffled.

“Are you going to stay on the phone with me?” Dongho begged for the man not to leave him right now. The next moment, Minhyun spoke in a strict voice, “I am about to be driving, so I can’t.” 

Immediately Dongho began to whine, but right before he could cry more the line was cut. All that got out was a short and abrupt whimper saying, “Minhyu—"

The tall man had his hands on his steering wheel, but after hearing that over the phone he no longer felt fit to drive. He needed a moment, a minute to let his heart calm down before rushing home to that sweet voice that called his name.

After Minhyun had gotten home, he passed all the light switches and went straight to his bedroom. The footprints of his wet shoes he hadn’t bothered to take off in a rush followed him all the way to the bed where the other man laid.

Dongho was on his back surrounded my ragged sheets, body glazed with sweat and he himself sounded like he was wheezing in the midst of it. Minhyun found a place where to sit beside him, his hands carefully hovered the boys aching body not knowing where to touch so that it wouldn’t hurt.

Dongho point him directly to it, asking for Minhyun to put his hands on the other mans hips. Hwangs eyes shot to the side spotting a suspicious looking laptop, Dongho didn’t even cover his face that instantly burned red with guilt.

Minhyuns hand slid upwards, dragging the tee that Dongho had on along with it. His fingers count the ribs on the way up, stopping at the neck only to pull the same shirt over Donghos head.

As soon as the tee was off, Dongho arched his head back as if it had no strength, his mouth let out a lovely mewl. Minhyun didn’t get to pull forth the hem of the duvet covering Donghos lower parts before the guy came at him, demanding a kiss.

Dongho gave a weak, open-mouthed and drooling kiss. His bottom lip quivered under Minhyuns. When Donghos hand held the back of his skull, Minhyun had no choice but to enter the bed with his shoes on. The two went on for a fierce minute until Minhyun managed to peel himself off, and rushed to undress himself, shoes first.

Meanwhile, Dongho had also wondered off somewhere. His hand searched inside of the crumpled sheets and grabbed something that had been previously hidden.

Minhyuns eyes fixated on the almost half emptied bottle of lube shining from outside the sheets. The look of question appeared on his face, amplified when realizing the amount of used tissues that welcomed his now naked feet which touched the floor under the bed.

Dongho spoke in a sad voice of someone guilty, “I couldn’t wait for you to get home.” He apologized.

“Eh?” Confused by exactly what he meant by that, Minhyun continued to stare at the shirtless boy now laying on his elbows.

The shotest reluctantly nodded like it was painful for him to do. One of his arms reaching to guide Minhyuns to his stomach, the other mans fingers naturally slid down to the lower part, right below the belly button.

“Fuck.” Minhyun was unlikely to cuss, but bad habits were contagious.

This was like an open invitation for Minhyun to finally fuck him blind. But now that the chance had actually come to him, he was dumbfounded, unable to move. His hands were careful when they shifted to drag the fabric of the duvet tied around Donghos lower hips to see the rest.

Suddenly embarrassed to be seen by Hwang, Dongho pulled his balled up fists to his face to hide, his legs began to squirm into wild directions until Minhyun had to hold them down. Minhyun would never mock him for it, how could he ever make fun of the man when he was this pretty.

The tallest stared in awe at his friends painfully hard dick that had been sitting trapped and leaking wet hidden under the duvet for who knows how long. 

“How did you become like this?” Minhyun caressed one of Donghos heated thighs first, before slowly creeping his hands towards one spot.

The man never answered. It was hard for Dongho to speak and swallow, let alone admit all the things he had done while Minhyun had been away out loud. He had gotten curious, perhaps a little too curious maybe.

He groaned, widening his knees, one of which sported a band aid. Then raised his ass out of the sheets only a little bit, unveiling that he had been fucking himself till now with a toy he had stolen from his best friend’s house. It had been carelessly dropped, partially hidden in the sheet beside him like he hated it. The amount of lube for it outside and inside on his body seemed a bit excessive.

Now that Minhyun had seen it all, Dongho instantly regretted the day he had been born. He went on to grab a nearby pillow and place it in front of his face that was so red by now.

“This is embarrassing.” He admitted, only to be dismissed quick. “No, it is not.” Minhyun took a hold of his friends hands so that his eyes would fix on only him. 

Honestly Hwang had not expected for this idiot to go all out like this. Although it was slightly out of his squeamish and frail hearted character, Minhyun couldn’t complain.

“I’ll help you.” Minhyun promised. Dongho nodded, believing that his day could really not turn out any more worse than it already was. 

“Where did you get that by the way?” Minhyun didn’t laugh or even chuckle at the strange find, he was rather interested.

Dongho couldn’t comprehend the question, in fact he wouldn’t be able to comprehend any question. “Just hurry.” He begged.

Some condoms were tossed on the same bed, recently used and unused, Donghos entire last collection it seemed like. Minhyun got himself a new one and wore it on his finger which was then sneaked right under his friend.

“W—wait!” Dongho grabbed into the mans forearm to hold him still for a minute, Minhyun read his worried face and after a while began to grin. Dongho was always offended by that nasty smirk on his face, it was always so punchable no one could even imagine. 

“Go slow, idiot.” He ordered, his eyes shot to the right. Minhyun gave him a small nod and carried on. 

The low pain tolerance of the short guy was kicking in already, even if Minhyuns touch was so miniscule, just his fingertips drawing lines on his skin on their way down. Dongho grit his teeth and tried not to whine over it. The dressed finger sank lower past the threshold of the other males vision. Minhyun lightly paused the flat of his thumb against the mans perineum. There he would rub an oval circle with his lubed digit, lightly pressing through the skin, feeling the muscles underneath the heated skin and looking to see if he could find a place to make the man feel good from outside.

From the moment Minhyun had bought his touches anywhere near that spot, Dongho wanted to shrivel up from being too sensitive. His hips started to lift on their own to cheat and get Minhyun to reach his ass sooner.

The tall make let out an evil snicker, finding joy in seeing Dongho so desperate to feel him – right after denting him for so long. Minhyun could’ve been mean and made Kang pay back by having him wait for just as long. But he felt like it would be a sin not to touch the begging man, he had swelled so much more just from being caressed alone.

The lone digit only just pressed at first, drawing pointless circles around the entrance, sliding over it and everywhere else, without ever going inside. Dongho seemed to quickly grow tired of it already, he puckered forwards the motion of Minhyuns digit, trying to impale himself out of frustration.

Only once Dongho had learned to not complain and be silent, just then each press and rub got a little more daring until finally the first finger joint had slicked in, wriggling to find room. The body of his was painfully tight, even for a finger. Donghos head began to shake from side to side, a pleasant feeling and an unpleasant one got mixed into one and his whole body felt so confused. His nerves were going haywire, the blood in the veins that coursed his body were on fire.

Dongho suddenly gasped and Minhyun made a full stop. When Minhyun had moved just now, it suddenly had stung a whole lot more. 

“Ah! Did you break something?” A shaky voice almost cried. “No, you idiot.” Minhyun laughed at the overreaction, as there were now tiny tears appearing in each corner of Donghos eyes. All while his lower body squeezed shut so tight that it was holding Minhyuns hand hostage.

The tall male decided to replace his index finger with his pinky which instantly went in smoothly and began to fuck Dongho with it. The shortest struggled against the sheets under him, gasping at how much he wanted for Minhyun to just go in big instead of torturing him.

Slightly offended, Dongho bit down on his own lip, raised his head to see above the horizon of his own chest, but he still couldn’t see Minhyuns hand past the wrist. He then shot an angry glance at his friend, which he felt was well deserved.

It took a while for the burn to go away, but in less than a minute he both moaned and cried when Minhyun was back with his thickest digit and moving inside of him, gradually screwing in and out. Eventually it was starting to feel as the digits had doubled, indeed Minhyun was working two now, inserting the other one without Dongho knowing to lessen his pain responses. It didn’t help that much however, the most sensitive part of his body was being stretched and it caused him to involuntary yelp.

“Minhyun, hang on. That hhurt—” Before the big guy could fully spell it out, Minhyun had already stopped. His free hand had bought him close to Donghos face which he gladly peppered with kisses of healing.

Dongho blinked his eyes in amazement, the sting had instantly gone away just like that. Minhyun rushed back to what he had been doing, and jerked the guys dick as he watched Donghos face melt into a relaxed expression.

The fingers eased back in, slowly readjusting, waiting a little and only then spreading the sore, glistening skin wider. He made small pauses each time before he did something different, directly following the movements of the other mans twitching body that tightened around him with almost each thrust.

Minhyun angled the thrust of his fingers upwards towards the belly, hitting a spot that made Dongho whine good. He kept it pressed like that and then repeated the thrust to earn the same sound from the mouth of the other, already forgetting what he was supposed to do, just to press moans out of Dongho.

For Dongho, everything felt so good at once that he literally wanted to explode. Soon enough he began to cry out, rain actual tears from his eyes and beg to the other by telling him how close he was. The guy who had always been bragging about how he could go on for hours with women was now rendered into a crying mess within minutes. Minhyun wished he could fuck Dongho with anything other than fingers, but the guy was at his breaking point already – his spine raised and neck arched away from the pillows that once supported it.

He withdrew his hand and Dongho cried out at being hollow, his ass gave the other man a view of gradually blinking shut after being used. Instead the other hand of Minhyuns began to stroke quicker and better now that he didn’t have to please two places at once. The shortest began to raise and reach his hands, his fingers had gone all crooked, bent and sore from previously tearing into the sheets.

“Minhyun.” Donghos high pitched voice kept repeating only one name, while his dick kept twitching and pulsating into his friends palm. 

“Yeah?” The tallest showed interest, almost slowing down to listen to the wails of the other man.

The head of the shortest shot from left to right, as if he was fighting against it. “I am gonna cum.” Dongho slurred, corners of his mouth shiny with foamy spit, “I’m gunnuh—!"

Minhyun spoke back to him, his voice deep and full of grunt, “Do it. Show me.” Minhyun eyes had widened to the point they were almost red, he tried not to blink in order to not miss out on seeing Kang climax.

A feeling of boiling water rained down Donghos spine, soon to be replaced with the sensation of freezing cold. He came inside Minhyuns tightly clasped hands in rounds while he countlessly repeated that mans name, and then when it all stopped, his body just collapsed.

Minhyun didn’t notice the box of tissues sitting right beside him, nor did he notice his gross dripping hands. He kept his eyes on Dongho, watching in awe as the exhausted body would randomly twitch in sleep as if it was being zapped by small amounts of electricity. 

Then Minhyun laid down facing Dongho, resting his caress on the mans wide thighs. Dongho wasn’t quite asleep yet, he was dreaming, but somehow fully awake. When he opened his eyes, Minhyun was there an inch from his face. Too tired to ask for another kiss, he just nuzzled his nose close to the other already expecting one.

His brain had become an incoherent mush of chemicals that made his body all tingly and numb. They made him not want to do anything else, but to cuddle.

“Don’t stop hugging me.” Was the first request that flew out of Donghos mouth. Minhyun did as told and held him even tighter, so tight he felt like his own bones would break from it.

The thunder coming from the outside had come down. After an hour the window glass no longer cried with drops of rain rushing down from the sky. Dongho felt lucky to have Minhyun lay by his side after the scary thunder had gone.

The two had been laying together like that for the longest time, perhaps until almost daytime. The sun was still hidden behind deep dark, only a sliter of light blue outlined the far horizon.

A bad thought interrupted his dream. He was blunt and direct when voicing it, “Minhyun, did you really meet someone else tonight?”

Minhyun realized what Kang had meant, and went to clarify, “No I was with the parents.” Dongho hugged himself closer to Hwang, chin over shoulder to hide his face that had been riddled with jealousy, “Oh, that’s a relief.” 

The tallest pulled his head from under Dongho, sitting himself up a bit to look down on the guy, “Would you be jealous if I was really with someone else?” 

While Dongho was hesitant to reply honestly, Minhyun joked to try and sound funny, “After all, we are only pretending to be a couple.”

Dongho didn’t laugh at the joke, it offended him, “Then lets not pretend.” 

Minhyun was so startled by the sudden words that it didn’t even register them at first. Dongho was asking him out. Right now, out of all times he had decided that this would be the best moment.

“I hate pretending. I really hate it now.” Dongho shook his head and winced his eyes shut. Minhyun stared at the man who kept stealing his heart.

“I can’t tell when you are being for real and when you are just playing around. I don’t want you to play around and tease me, I want it all to be real.” Dongho spoke without taking a breath.

And then finally, Dongho made the biggest revelation to the other. “And because, I think, I love—you.”

“Fuck.” Dongho immediately swung his upper torso up in bed to sit, his fingers automatically grabbing onto his own earlobes to stop the blood flow there so they wouldn’t red in front of Hwang.

“I really have gone nuts, haven’t I?” Dongho blamed himself.

Minhyun froze almost like a statue, his heart breaking into ten million pieces and instantly reassembling itself to be whole again, even bigger than before, all while Dongho pant to regain the breath he had lost while rising his desperate voice.

This couldn’t be real, this had to be a dream, thought Minhyun. “Dongho, are you by any chance asking me out right now?” Eventually Minhyun started to smirk, curiously tilting his head to the left.

The big guy was caught red handed, without hesitation he nodded. Minhyun smiled like he was proud of the guy for finally admitting it. 

“Just as expected.” Hwang mocked the guy for falling for him. He knew this bastard would eventually.

Dongho wished to snarl at that egoistic jerk, but his face softened once Minhyun replied with, “As you wish,”

“Then, let’s not pretend that the things we are doing right now are still fake.” He accepted the proposal with a wink.

Dongho realized his heartrate had shot up, suddenly he was loaded up with adrenaline. Just from having made his confession, his dick was starting to grow back to life like it had never before. He regained some strength to sit up and have his thighs straddle Minhyuns clothed lap, surprising the other.

Dongho was fairly short, so they were evenly tall this way, the shortest made a cute grin recognizing the fact. His hips swayed from side to side as he nested in the right position. Minhyun placed his hands on the mans back, smiling right back.

Dongho was the first one to kiss, his tongue slicked over Minhyuns lower lip before he licked the mans mouth open for himself. They both shut their eyes at the same time, tilted their jaws in the right position so their mouths could become one, mushy and sweet.

The more they got into it, the more Dongho shamelessly used Minhyuns lap as a place for friction, grinding his ass up against the shape of the man also developing under him. He whined from the very little feeling, and thrust himself onto Minhyun even harder. It took Hwang another minute to realize the urgency and move his body too. The first thing he did was to very aggressively toss himself and Dongho over.

Minhyun was now hovering on top, while Dongho was on the bottom, giving him the most dreamy look of all. That was his confirmation, the proof that Dongho was finally, at last all his.

The shortest yelled at the wall behind him, chin pointing high up while Minhyun attacked his neck with pleasant kisses, small and big ones. Hickeys and tiny pecks, it was all an unsorted mess – a mess Minhyun had been longing to make ever since he had met the man.

“Hey?” Minhyun interrupted, “Can you get on your knees for me?” He spoke with a voice all husky and low, while simultaneously reaching back to pull his own briefs back.

Dongho caught a glimpse of the thick of it and outright gulped. Minhyun was absolutely massive, and the colour was nice matching the rest of his body too. Never had Kang felt this much dick envy before, but at least on the bright side, that dick was going to be used on him.

“My k-knees?” Dongho repeated. Minhyun spoke in quickened nods, it was hard for him not to just toss him around himself.

Dongho did as told which put him in a rather vulnerable position, he couldn’t see anything behind himself meanwhile Minhyun could see pretty much everything. 

Due to him once being a martial artist, Donghos body was curvy, perhaps a little chubby, he had massive thighs and hips wide as a barn. His waist still seemed smaller than the rest of him, especially compared to the size of his shoulders whenever his spine would nicely dip down. Minhyun stared without touching first, only then he started to go from caressing the mans back, to his waist and last his soft inner thighs.

“Ah?” Dongho noticed how Minhyun had briefly paused right after his hands had reached his behind. He realized why and instantly tensed every muscle in his body.

Minhyun took a moment to stare at the menacing looking plastic dick that the guy had previously used on himself, while probably closing his eyes and imagining it as the tall man. Minhyun was curious about how much Dongho had done with it.

The bed creaked under the shifting weight, suddenly Minhyun had cupped Donghos entire short frame with his own much taller self. He leaned over Dongho and his lips stopped at the back of the mans earlobe, causing his eyes to turn into the smallest dots, when feeling Hwang whisper things to him.

They weren’t actually words however, they were breaths used to communicate, to entice. Dongho gasped feeling a digit being forced into him again, hastily thrusting until Minhyun decoded to double the count. Two was the limit so far, but Minhyun needed at least three, hell even four, yet the guy was way too tight for just one, considering that even the brush of a fingertip would hurt for Dongho. His nerves had pulled as tight as a bowstring, all tense no matter how Minhyun tried to soothe him.

“Hold on.” Minhyun warned him when adding a second one, taking Donghos earlobe in between his lips in the meanwhile. The whole time Dongho was silently whimpering, feeling it sting and burn for a long time before it gradually faded away.

It got to the point where his eyes became teary enough to form one solid teardrop that fell from his face and landed under him into the pillow for Minhyun to see, while Dongho himself stared at it for long with surprise.

Minhyun chuckled by his ear, shoving himself deeper to further reach up against Donghos ear ahainst, “You must be so sensitive here.” The guy jolt in response, more wet collecting in his eyes.

Dongho froze feeling Minhyuns tongue play with his sole piercing dangling from his ear, then he felt – he heard, something hard grapple onto it. Minhyun held the piercing with his front teeth, whist trying not to giggle.

It served as a small distraction for when Minhyun attempted to add a tip of a third. It worked at first, but Dongho soon broke out a squeal, forgetting all about his trapped earlobe.

“You alright?” Minhyun tried to reach to kiss Donghos cheeks, but his dace was dipped down. The guy didn’t want to turn knowing how wet and sweaty he had become just from being pinned down like this. However Minhyun had already seen him, and he didn’t care.

“Yeah—hnngh” Dongho bumped his hips backwards to force movement now that Minhyun had interrupted himself. The guy got the memo and went back to continue.

Minhyun let go and scrolled his body back to look at his own fingers twist inside of the mans tormented body. Three digits were in flat, stretching him to the widest point, his now teased skin shining bright and pink. 

The tallest waited and waited before making and sharp movements, but each time he moved Dongho still made a sound. At one point Dongho just tried to hold his voice, because he was that desperate to feel anything else, but Minhyuns short skinny fingers. He didn’t want to resort to begging knowing how badly that tall bastard would actually want to hear that.

“Are you ready yet?” Minhyun returned to his previous spot of leaning down, only this time he had forced Dongho down on his elbows, lower to the pillow. Dongho tried to nod.

He almost cried out of relief when realizing that Minhyun was about to finally use his dick instead, and again thrust his hips backwards onto the said mans groin while still stuffed with a hand. As soon as the fingers slicked out, the emptied hole gaped for merely a split second before twitching tight shut.

The same wet fingers helped to guide his plastic wrapped dick to the tiny opening leaking with a waterfall lube. When Minhyun pressed the tip of his dick at the entrance, it squelched out even more of the same lube.

The tallest started easing in by making a circular motion with the head, trying to show to the frail body below him how big he was. Dongho had seen it before and he thought that it was never going to work, but yet they had already gotten this far, so it had to be attempted.

Minhyun pressed in against the tight heat that felt like it was purposely pushing him outward. Dongho had gone and gripped a sheet into his fist, pulling it over his winced shut eyes. The tall man repositioned and reached his spare hand to stroke the guy at the front at a calm speed.

The tallest stood there for a few moments, holding his breath to listen to Dongho pant into the pillow that was supporting his chin – long exhales and sharp abrupt inhales, small half-made gasps that still snuck past his vocal cords when he tried to hold them.

Minhyuns hand that cupped his groin had slowed to a crawl, using his fingers only to apply pressure from the top. Dongho painfully whimpered each time he would back his ass into Minhyun himself to force harsher movement, only to moments later do the same again anyway.

Maybe the jerk was into that, but Minhyun only wanted to make him feel good right now. Yet when he was being so needy and disobedient like this it was hard for Minhyun to hold still. Finally he started to actually move, slowly grinding himself in place, then he began to quicken by pulling outwards and then snapping his hips back forwards.

“Ah, Minhyun.” Dongho sang, “Nng—Minhyun, feels good.”

Gradually, by moving this way, Minhyun started to gain good responses from the other man, alas his moans still sounded very much like cries and sobs, but somewhere in there was an endless voice of bliss that absorbed as music into Minhyuns ears.

The initiative was there for him to become even more vicious with his thrusts, his hand landed on Donghos sweaty waist, holding it down just to not accidentally fold his body in half. Minhyuns other hand that had already stroked Dongho to the point he was dripping in thin strings through the gaps of his fingers. His body was still squeezing so hard now, it was so tight it felt impossible to pull out, as if he was being sucked back in.

“Hah, wait.” Dongho moaned, “Go slower, please.” He begged when it was too much, looking back with a hiss forming on his lips. 

“I am trying.” Minhyun growled in a low foreign voice. Stopping his body from moving at this point felt like trying to brake a moving train. 

The two stopped, stuck in this position where Dongho couldn’t even move, a dick hard in his ass still moving his insides around with every breath. He felt even more shy realizing that Minhyun was probably watching it all from behind with the most delicious stares.

“You are so cute Dongho.” Minhyun grinned down at his prize. “Don’t call me cute. I am a guy.” Dongho felt embarrassed.

“Guys can be cute. Like you, you are cute.” Minhyun moved his body along with his words. In that moment, Dongho had no idea if his heart or ass were feeling more light.

Dongho dropped his head into the pillow again and Minhyun chased him with a back hug. He placed oddly spaced kisses on the back of his friends neck with every thrust that bounced him forwards, to show how much he cared. Like always the body of the shortest was still so hot, steaming as if the blood that flowed in his veins was boiling. Minhyun couldn’t see his face, just his ears that were glowing red.

All of a sudden Dongho felt weird, his body was acting a way it had never done before. He felt this intense rush ravage through his body and he began to yelp, Minhyun tried to quicken the grip his hand held on the guys dick, feeling it ooze more and more through the gaps of his fingers.

His entire body was pulsating, his dick twitching against the stroke of Minhuns hand and ass rhythmically squeezing down on the other mans width. Dongho opened his mouth to yell into the pillow, but right before he could, Minhyun slid out completely to knock him on his side.

One of his legs suddenly went over Minhyuns shoulders, the other one became lodged under the knee of the same man who now fucked him sideways. Hwang wanted to see Donghos pretty face so bad right now, no matter the cost.

Somehow Dongho recovered quickly, the strong urge to release had never gone away. Yet now he felt it even more intensively, as if he was about to pass out if he didn’t get to do it soon.

That bastard Minhyun, turns out he had been smiling this whole time. That same old evil grin always had been decorating Minhyuns face, even when it rained with gross sweat.

“Ughh—!” Dongho caught his hand on top of his tummy, still partially not realizing what was happening to him. Minhyun became almost feral at the sight, so it only took him two or three more big thrusts to make Dongho cum without a warning.

“Eh?” Dongho was shocked noticing how Minhyuns hand had been completely off his dick, but the same stomach where his hand had been now was webbed in white. 

The late waves of ecstasy hit him like a truck, his arms fell and his eyelids drooped shut. Minhyun was still inside of him, moving so slightly before sliding out. The guy jerked himself off to the sight of Dongho just laying there panting at the sky covered in his own grease.

Dongho woke up by the sound of Minhyuns groan he had let out, and caught the guy in the middle of that ethereal state. He looked like an angel, his body sparkling and glistening, each individual drop of sweat on his neck and chest reflected break of first light of the sunrise sneaking into their bedroom.

Minhyun breathed out his deepest breath, “You good?” Was the first informal thing he said. Dongho didn’t have a clue, his body had gone from burning to numb in the matter of seconds.

No response. Dongho just blinked at him as if he had never even processed the question. To cure him, Minhyun hugged him even thought they were both still hot, wet covered in sweat and other bodily fluids. But right now he could care less.

“I—” Donghos voice was so fucked up that Minhyun had to put his ears directly to his lips to hear him. 

“You weren’t just pretending when you said that you’d go out with me, right?” He spoke with lips brushing against Minhyuns earlobe.

Right after asking he suddenly winced, “Ow!” Dongho could still feel pain – Minhyun had proved it by purposely biting into his cheek to stop the guy from trying to speak such nonsense.

“I’ve never once pretended around you.” Minhyun chirped, causing Dongho to become all mellow and squish behind a pillow he had found somewhere nearby to cover his intrusive grin.


	25. Chapter 25

Just in a few hours, waking up to Minhyuns loving face staring at him from an inch away distance is when Dongho had instantly realized how much he had fucked up last night.

Not only had he confessed, he had even slept with the guy and also had totally asked him out. So now they were dating – officially. Dongho had never wanted to date anyone, and besides Minhyun was really the worst person he could possibly date. Yet despite that, he didn’t feel like he could ever regret it. No matter how much he hated to be in love with someone, he loved Minhyun. 

Dongho shot awake by bouncing his top body up into a sitting position, a mistake he would remember for years to follow. He didn’t realize it at first as soon as he had woken up, but his ass was now literally on fire from last night. His hiss not only made Minhyun awake, but also caused him to burst out into a laugh.

“Are you okay?” Hwang stopped laughing to show concern, but the expression of Kangs face was just too funny – he looked so grumpy and mean.

“I am fine, smartass.” Dongho lied in order to try and drive the other man away before he would start playing doctor.

He now sat there unable to move at all, the slight sting caused him to become concerned that Minhyun might have left some parasitic eggs inside of him that were now in the middle of hatching. Minhyun sat in bed on his knees smiling and all, waiting for Dongho to try and get up, but the guy could hardly roll over.

Dongho gave up and ket Minhyun have his laugh if he wanted to, “Hey, but—” Kang spoke in the tiniest, baby voice, “Do you have a painkiller or somthin’?”

“Sure,” The tall jerk smiled proud of his accomplishment, “I can help you apply an ointment too, if you want?” 

Minhyuns playful suggestion made Dongho swing his arm, yet the other guy simply dodged the smack and started to giggle again.

“Piss off.” The shortest warned him. 

Minhyun shook his head and indeed began to sit up alone. As soon as Hwang pushed himself out of the unmade morning bed, Dongho couldn’t help but to regret scolding him and went to drag him back in. Dongho caught the tallest by the arm and bought him down with.

The aggressive punk didn’t say a word to Minhyun, he just hugged him tight and buried his face into the neck of the other, forcing his new boyfriend to nap with him. A quiet, “Ow.” would repeat next to Minhyuns ear for the next minute and a half.

“I reckon you won’t be going to school today?” Minhyun teased him about his apparent tummy ache. 

“Yeah, and you won’t be either.” Dongho threw a leg over Minhyun like a hook and clamped around him like a hungry python. The tall guy instantly began to wriggle and pull out, dropping Donghos heavy limbs off from him like stones. 

“I can’t lay in bed all day. I have stuff coming up.” Minhyun remembered, he was regretful, but nothing could be done about it.

Donghos puppy frown was making the guy feel even more guilty, so it took Minhyun two seconds to change his mind and lay back down with the other man who was instantly happy again. They held hands, hidden inside and under the sheets where nobody, but them could see. They weren’t just pretending now, and it had never felt so good.

Minhyun continued the cuddling for needlessly long minutes, but sometime after the short lived dreamy moment had ended when a phone suddenly began to ring in the background. Minhyun finally sat up again, picking up the said phone to read the screen. 

Donghos eyes had become too glossy and blurry to notice that the phone which Minhyun was holding was his own. The ringtone played for only a few seconds before Minhyun had already attached it to his ear.

“What is it auntie?” Minhyun spoke to the caller. 

When realizing who Minhyun was speaking to, Dongho wanted to pick himself up and shut the phone off, but his elbows wouldn’t lift him up anymore, his ass was heavy and dragging him down back onto the mattress.

He thought that he was going to die now, so he just laid there awaiting his death. He watched in continuous horror as Minhyun nodded when he had replied to something, before not long, he had happily hang up. Dongho was confused that the conversation had been so short, with no screaming involved.

“I told you they like me more than you.” Minhyun grinned. 

“What the heck, Hwang?” Dongho grabbed his phone back to look, finding a bunch of messages congratulating him. Dongho looked at the culprit of it all, Minhyun – that bastard had lied to him. 

Last night when he said he was meeting with family, he had actually meant Donghos family and not his own, coercing them into letting him take care of their eldest son. Which now probably meant that they were freaking engaged – well, to a degree. This was as far as they could go without signing some paper with a small print on the back somewhere stating that Hwang would inherit the full ownership of young Kang.

The poor guy couldn’t even imagine the shit Minhyun had to tell his family in order to talk them into giving Dongho a pass. “D-did you manage to convince my auntie?” He questioned, but Hwang proudly stayed mute.

It had been too easy for Minhyun, he had organised the family meeting inside the fanciest luxury restaurant in town, renting out a whole floor for a whole hour. Minhyun had bowed down to tell everyone that he would date and take care of their eldest – steer him clear of the path of debauchery that he was currently on. Not only that, but he had also implied that he would pay Dongho all the way through college, even if they end up breaking up. After having promised that, Minhyuns hand was rather frantically shook on the spot to seal that deal.

Yet Dongho had no idea about any of it, he sat there with his big beady gerbil eyes looking up at Minhyun for answers. The tall man adored at his brand new possession with a proud grin, he had been worth every dime.

“Come on! Tell me!” Dongho demanded to know it all. Minhyun shook his head and teased him, “What can I say? I guess I am just a smooth talker.”

The next second after him having said that a pillow flew his way, landing directly across his face. 

Minhyuns laugh was replaced by a pained squeal the second he had fallen backwards out of the bed and crashed directly onto the spine. Dongho leaped out in horror to save the wailing man, and Minhyun spent the next two minutes trying to convince his boyfriend that he didn’t need chest compressions.

Days following the start of them going out, Minhyun had been gradually adopting more and more bad habits from Dongho. He had began skipping the beginning and end of his own theatre rehearsals, using the only spare time he had to be with Dongho, and turning every living moment with the other man outside of their house into a date.

Dongho was not amused by Minhyuns affectionate antics today, he walked through the university halls glaring at every single person who stared at them walking together.

“Why are you following me?” The guy spoke to the body behind him from over his shoulder, sounding grumpy and displeased.

“I wanted for you to be able to show me to all of your friends!” Minhyun leaned closer to whisper that to him. His true goal was to distract the guy and have Dongho only looking at him for the entire day.

“Do you think this is a show and tell?” The blushing Dongho retaliated with a high pitched bark. The two continued to nag and bicker until they had reached the meeting hotspot where Dongho always met with his closest friends.

The line-up hasn’t changed yet, comprised of the three biggest slackers in the whole university. Mingi sat at the table dealing his friends cards. Him, Jonghyun and Aaron had been so focused on playing, that as soon as Donghos voice appeared out of nowhere they all started to scram, shoving all of the bet money back into their pockets.

“Hey guys.” Dongho was a little awkward with his friends now that he had hooked elbows with Minhyun. They all politely averted their eyes as soon as they had seen the two lovebirds, but their amazed stares were still noticed by the couple.

Donghos friends swapped seats to allow those two to sit together, that way Dongho instantly knew there would be a problem with these guys. Without him ever having told anyone that him and Minhyun had began openly dating, his friends acted like they were onto something already. 

Realizing Dongho had come with his pair, Aaron had gone ridiculously silent. Only Minhyun knew why though, he supposed that he shouldn’t act too expressive with his boyfriend around the short guy in order to not hurt his feelings. It wasn’t that big of a deal fir Minhyun though, because he only needed to wait until they went back home to do whatever.

“Hi Hwang!” Mingi waved his wrist at Donghos celebrity boyfriend and then gasped realizing how informal he had been, bowing his head down in apology.

Dongho punched his thumb on top of Mingis dense skull to make him snap out of it. “He is my friend, just call him Minhyun.” The guy did not wish to complicate things.

“Friend?” Jonghyun raised a brow from underneath his thick bangs, a snicker escaped Mingis mouth moments later.

“Right,” Dongho had decided now might be the best time for it than ever, “We are dating.” 

Right after his announcement he closed his eyes and breathed deep, expecting all kinds of reactions across his friends. Ranging from “How is this possible?” to “I never knew you swung that way!” and to be fair, neither of those questions Dongho had a clear answer to himself.

As he had previously told, Dongho had never looked to date someone. He was uncommitted to being in a relationship. Yet despite that, he ended up falling for the first person who had pretended to date him. The universe had made some kind of a sick joke at his expense.

Dongho reopened his eyes confused to see no reaction on his friends faces, just blank stares. 

“We knew.” They all spoke at once like a choir.

Dongho suddenly gritted his angry trembling fist over his sitting knee, slowly raising it up for everyone to see, “What on earth do you mean you knew?”

“Calm down Dongho.” Minhyun giggled. His hand rest on top of Donghos thigh under the table just out of the line of sight, soothing his boyfriend.

Dongho shot his head to the right and direct all of his anger at Minhyun instead. But of course, this little shitstain was the one that had started it – he was the root of all evil.

“Its quite obvious actually.” Jonghyun nonchalantly leaned back crossing his arms, his eyes scanned Dongho up and down. The short man became red at the notion that his friends knew about his gross feelings for Minhyun even before he knew about them himself.

“Damnit.” He hissed. The table erupted in chuckles, even ones coming from Aaron. Dongho glared at him too, he had expected better coming from his best friend.

“We are just jealous Dongho!” Mingi pretended to cutely whine, bobbing his shoulders up and down.

Minhyun laughed, looking to see if Aaron was still listening, “There is room in bed for one more.”

“Don’t involve my friends in your immoral ways.” Dongho threatened his boyfriend to shut up. But despite his best efforts, his own friends were the ones cheering for Minhyun.

The group conversation was short after that, not because it was awkward with Minhyun as the new part of the crew, but because the guy just spoke too much, and Donghos friends were too interested to hear every little detail that he had to share. At the end Dongho dragged himself and Hwang away from them, to prevent Minhyun sharing a little too much detail.

Out of the kindness of his heart, Dongho decided to give his friend a guide of the university, but even then Minhyuns eyes only ever went to look at him. Dongho knew this, but acted like he didn’t see it.

Eventually the halls around the university began to empty and the two walked towards the classrooms, yet their walk was purposely slow. At one point it was so quiet the could allow themselves to hold hands for a bit, pretending it was only accidental at first, but continue holding them thereafter.

Aaron took the same route to the same classroom as Kang. Once upon a time, when Minhyun wasn’t there to tear the two best buddies apart, Dongho and Aaron always took the long way around from lunchroom to the lecture halls, just so they could chat a little bit more. Today too Aaron took the same path, but now he walked alone.

The guy felt so sullen because Dongho and Minhyun really did look so well together today. He thought that he had been out of his mind thinking that he could’ve ever compare and ask his best friend out first.

Therefore, he didn’t wish to see those two anymore. Not because he hated them or anything, but just because looking at Dongho spending time with someone else bothered him a little too much sometimes. He thought, it would certainly be horrible if he just so happened to waltz right into them out of no where. If something like that were to happen it would certainly be unlucky as hell.

Aarons already slowed, dragging feet stomped to a full stop, his eyes suddenly stressed to see into the distance – up the large stairwell with railings made out of glass. He saw two figures up there, one pressed up against the another balancing at a wall.

It was no one other than Dongho being late for class as per usual to fondle his new boyfriend. The guy had no self awareness and his boyfriend was just like him. They were too lost in their kisses to realize that they were out in public, alas nobody else was around, but they could be seen by anyone running late to class.

To Dongho and Minhyun, it only felt like a second of kissing, but in reality a whole minute had passed since they had locked lips. Minhyun slid his open mouth down to Donghos stretched neck and from there reality just stopped existing at all for both.

Aarons heart ached so much, but he just couldn’t stop staring. Dongho was making some sweet faces and Aaron felt like it was impossible for him to avert his eyes. The tallest man earned a gasp from his boyfriend by digging his nails into the front belt of his pants. After almost half a minute of peeping, having seen that is what made Aaron instantly jump backwards and start to bolt away.

Dongho heard a noise and therefore pushed Minhyun away. The tall bastard grinned like a fool, trying to go back in like it was nothing. “Hey! Quit it, I don’t wanna get expelled!” Dongho whisper-shouted at the other.

Minhyun pout, “You are so boring.” 

The two decided to part for now. Somehow Minhyun had managed to force one last childish peck on Donghos cheek before leaving and ran down the same staircase before the cusses could reach his ears.

Aaron could hear the steps of the tall man pass him hiding just around the corner, he spent another few moments to make sure that everyone were fully gone before leaving his hiding spot. Instead of the lecture room, his limping leg lead him to the nearest bathroom where he sat down inside of a large stall covering both of his ears as a way to stop his thoughts.

He secretly wished that if he couldn’t date Dongho, then at least him and Hwang could instead put this dumb rivalry aside for a bit and instead just share the guy they both liked by taking turns with him. If Dongho closed his eyes, he wouldn’t even be able to tell them apart, the short male theorized. Minutes later, after much constipation, Aaron flushed and left.

On the first weekend day, Dongho woke up in a bed empty of Hwang. Nowadays when he wasn’t there Dongho didn’t know where to go without him. The guy had already woken up and was going about his day at home.

He sat up on their shared bed and Minhyun only gave him a small nod, sitting all the way across the room, focusing on purely studying. Even though Minhyun was obviously busy, he still looked so ominous like that. Perhaps Hwang just wasn’t used to living with a roommate yet, or maybe he was just playing hard to get.

To be fair Dongho didn’t know him that well either yet – things like work or family. Minhyun had only really shown a small glimpse of himself to the other man. Dongho found him mysterious, yet strangely intriguing.

The short guy fled from the awkward moment by getting out of bed and dressing up. The food was set out for him in the kitchen, but he tend to binge eat snacks whenever he was nervous. Even after the meal he had just had, he was already spying around for something else to eat up.

Dongho was deep in thought when he had opened the fridge with one arm, but as soon as the door was swung open he felt a muscle painfully pull in his stomach, he slouched slightly and held over his tummy with the other hand.

He jolted in place and almost gasped feeling another hand place over his own hand resting on his stomach. A chin hanged over his shoulder and kissed on top of his ear. Minhyuns voice was low and lovely today.

“Are you alright?” The tallest hummed. The jerk knew he was the cause of that very injury, but he was acting proud about it rather than concerned, or at least tgat is what it seemed like to Dongho.

The shortest felt angry for spawning a blush because of this jerk. “I am fine.” Dongho growled.

Minhyun kissed his ear again, just for fun. “Heal quicker. I want to do it with you again.” He whispered. 

This whole morning he had been trying to keep himself away from jumping at Kang, but this is as far as it ever got.

“You are—” Dongho grit his teeth, “You are really the worst human being Hwang Minhyun.” The man felt so flustered he could die, especially when the bastard was pressing against his back so close on purpose.

After he was pleased with himself for annoying Dongho, Minhyun backed away just as soon as he had come, leaving Dongho by himself. He heard the guy then let out a sigh of relief into the open fridge. Obviously, Dongho wasn’t too dense, he already knew what Hwang was doing now, it was clear as day that he was trying to act coy around him to try and eventually seduce him.

Dongho wasn’t a weakling, he promised to himself that he wouldn’t let that jerk toy with him so easily. From now on whenever Minhyun gave him a glance, Dongho gave him a cold shoulder instead. But it had the reverse effect on Minhyun, he found it funny. Taking up teasing Dongho into submission like a small challenge.


	26. Chapter 26

Dongho studied with his legs crossed under him on the couch. He kept readjusting, because after all this time he had still not gotten used to Minhyuns awful designed furniture. The cushioning felt extra flat and hard under him while his ass was still sore.

Like hawk, Minhyun had removed his sights from his own laptop to notice how his roommate had shifted positions at least five times within the past minute and a half now.

“What’s wrong?” Minhyuns innocent inquiry was met with a mean frown. Kang hated to answer to him right now, but he did just because he needed to express this pain, “Your furniture is too cold and hard to sit on.” He groaned.

Minhyun acted clueless, but of course he would act like he didn’t know about it with that bony ass of his. Dongho whimpered out of the difficult position for one last time, changing to sit on the back of his heels instead and implying that the house owner should do something about it, at least throw him a damn pillow for fucks sake.

Minhyun covered his lips with a finger to giggle, and then voiced an idea that he already had in his head the whole time he had been secretly watching the guy.

“Then sit on my legs.” Minhyun played innocent. Dongho saw right through him, and he hated the bastard. “It is comfy.” He pat on his own lap, inviting the other man like s cat.

“You are absolutely out of your damn mind to say something like that to me. Piss off, idiot.” Dongho swore and then Minhyuns laugh filled the room. 

After the laugh the two men both met their eyes on one another from across the room in an abrupt silence.

Within mere minutes Dongho had given in and ended up sitting on a hammock of Minhyuns crossed legs, and surely enough, it was the unhappiest time of his life. He was now stuck in Minhyuns wide spread lap making the face of an angry infant, trying to ignore it to just watch a DVD of his study material that ran on the TV.

The tallest smiled, his lips a proud and sealed, from above at the short Kang in his lap. The pants that Dongho wore were stretched so thin, Minhyun could feel the dudes ass all the way through and the other guy could probably feel him just as much. Yet the grumpy Dongho had not spoken once, focusing on the screen of the flashing TV screen.

At some point Minhyun decided to test the man, interested in knowing if Dongho was even paying attention to it or just being too preoccupied with trying to not think about or be bothered by Minhyun. 

Minhyun pretended to be interested, “What is it about?” He had raised his pointer finger at the TV and in that moment Dongho suddenly froze still to think.

“Fuck.” He had no idea, for the past three minutes he really was too annoyed to actually pay attention. Right then Minhyuns giggle was the most punishing noise he could have heard.

“Forgot already? You are such a bad student.” Minhyun teased his ears.

“I am just gonna keep watching.” The man bounced in his seat to readjust. Meanwhile Minhyun fixated his eyes on back of the mans neck and his precious little earlobes.

“If you are not paying attention then we can do something else worthwhile?” The guy suggested, and now Donghos veins across that same neck which his boyfriend had been watching were showing.

“What are you implying, you punk?” Dongho acted defensive and angry, but Minhyun was very much amused. “Nothin’!” He teased. 

However, Minhyun already knew Dongho would still agree though, he began to count seconds in his head to see how long it would take for the guy to give in.

“Ugh.” Donghos heavy groan of defeat came just as quickly as predicted. The guy wore his unluckiest face. “I am already failing most of my classes anyways.” He told.

“Then I’ll help you study later.” Came a wink from the tallest. 

“Really?” Dongho sounded way more excited than he should be to get someone to tutor him, realizing this he tried to speak again, “I mean, alright then.” Dongho had promptly corrected himself.

“What did you want for us to do?” Dongho dropped everything, crossing his arms. He expected for Minhyun to bring him out for a date or watch a movie with him at home.

Minhyun stayed ambiguously silent on the matter. But the far corners of his tightly sealed mouth kept twitching, wanting to curl upwards and spread into the cheesiest smile. Donghos pea sized brain had finally picked up the signals that the guy was sending him, suddenly his arms were no longer crossed.

There was a moment of hesitation, Minhyun glanced at him as if he were waiting for something to happen next, hoping that his counterpart would initiate it first. Meanwhile, Dongho wanted to be tough, be an alpha for once in his fucking life, despite him currently sitting in a lap of someone way taller than him. He arched his head to the side as far back as it could go to reach Minhyun behind him for a kiss, the other man helped him by holding his chin in a tilt.

Slow enduring kisses were nice and all, yet they weren’t enough for neither. Minhyun felt starved in front of Dongho, the guy was like a snack on a platter to him. Dongho jolt to the sudden sensation of foreign fingers creeping up his tummy, folding up the shirt that was in their way.

He gasped feeling them directly up against his skin, his lips wet and parted, ripped straight off from Minhyuns. The same hand was on the inside of his shirt now, searching around his stomach, gently rubbing him. Dongho suddenly felt afraid, realizing that he was already turned on just by being touched. Minhyun had really ruined his body for good.

Minhyun leaned in to kiss him again while his hand continued to move and glide, his pinkie finger playfully jabbing under the waistband of the shorts every once in a while. At one point Dongho involuntary moaned into Minhyuns mouth once be did that, so Kang tried to pull away in shame, yet the other only pressed his lips on him harder.

His chest had become heavy, soon he could no longer suffer Minhyuns sweet kisses. He had to use his hands to put distance between him and his boyfriend. Dongho sat aside and looked at the tallest with beady eyes.

Minhyun quickly looked around himself, as to make sure there wasn’t anyone else in the room, and then he pulled Dongho up from the couch by the hips steering him towards the bedroom. Kangs round blinkers went wide, his feet purposely trying to stall as soon as he realized what exactly had he just agreed to.

“Hey, wait up!” He yelped.

Dongho got sat down on the bed, even though as soon as Minhyun sat next to him he automatically fell backwards, crawling away on his elbows to gain distance from the guy with that evil sultry look on his face.

“Wait? How long?” Minhyun spoke in this fake innocent voice, acting like the devil dressed in the robes of a saint. Dongho exhaled, if they had already moved this far, then they might as well.

“Don’t listen to me.” Dongho spoke again. Minhyun giggled, to him Dongho looked so adorable, because he always had this wide-eyed, dumb, scared look on his face. Minhyun wished to know if the guy was ever this timid with girls too.

They proceeded, Minhyuns hands went to grab the end of Donghos shirt for the second time, he looked at the mans face as he did it, so he would know if to stop. The shortest couldn’t handle the stare and avoided looking.

Minhyun helped Dongho pull the shirt right over his head. Just in time, Dongho thought, he was already starting to get tight inside of it. 

There was nothing underneath it, no undershirt or anything. Hwang was presented with glistening muscles, a plump tattooed chest and a cute round tummy which he couldn’t help, but to poke with his finger. Dongho instantly winced, his muscles had been feeling somehow odd for days, perhaps Minhyun had previously broken something inside of him, that bastard.

Dongho laid down on his back and waited for Minhyun to stop eying him as if he were some kind of a treat. His breaths were big and nervous, eyes full of anxiety. Minhyun wanted to rid him of that anxiety, he knew exactly how.

He leaned his head low, a quick smirk formed on his mouth and licked the other mans chest. A hot red tongue spread over his peck and the slicked back giving him a sensation that was at the start cold and unpleasant, but it became weirdly prickly and nice after a while. 

Minhyun did it again someplace else, gradually eating the poor guy up more and more. Gradually Minhyuns voice grew from quiet gasps and supressed whimpers to loud moans, his shoulders wanted to twirl, but strong arms kept him pinned.

“Minhyun—Ah!” The shortest let out a squeal when that same tongue lapped around one of his nipples. “Minhyun, nuh—” He begged, watching his boyfriend press a kiss on the same spot.

Minhyun opened his lips, hovering his fangs slightly from touching the skin to respond to the other, “Why no?” 

Dongho certainly seemed like he was liking it, his face was blushing and his legs had just crossed tight. Yet the sheepish Dongho rolled his eyes to escape Minhyuns lewd stare.

“You do this with a girl. I am a guy.” He replied like it was obvious. Minhyun squint and made a shiny smile. He was literally star struck, because turns out this guy had never had never been touched there before.

“That doesn’t matter. Guys might like it too.” He slurred his speech while showing off the sharp tip of his tongue to his friend who was looking down. Dongho was certainly feeling it, despite it being weird and foreign.

After deciding to trust the other, he winced his eyes shut and swallowed his worries with a gulp. Minhyun returned to doing what he had started, sucking his lips against the heated skin. 

Soon another scared moan left Donghos mouth, this time in reaction to teeth playfully biting him. Minhyun would lightly chew him between his teeth, and then lick and kiss over the same sore spot to give it some healing before teasing it again and again.

Dongho gasped louder when he couldn’t take it anymore, before it had stung a bit, but now his skin felt raw and throbbed – it was on fire. Minhyun pulled away, a line of droll dripped from his lips still connecting him to the bullied skin of the other man.

The pinned down guy looked at his own chest, his right nipple now looked foreign to him, it had been made red and sore, it stuck out more and was more puffy than the one which had been left alone by his rude boyfriend.

To Minhyun it only made sense to make both of them look the same way, his hand went to flick the other one, which without being even touched had become oversensitive like the other. Dongho felt the unexpected sting ride through his bones, and zap through his spine. He moaned harder than before, throwing his head back upon impact, the corners of his mouth drooling with shiny spit.

Minhyun pressed his thumbs deep into Donghos cushioned chest and grind mean circles around the sensitive spot. The jerk purposely abused the one that hurt more to hear Dongho whine and cry, but at the same time the guy was only getting tighter and harder inside of his shorts from it. Soon Dongho had been robbed of a voice, a breath came out from his wet parted lips in place of a sentence. 

Minhyun recognized that desperate expression on his face, so he shot a quizzical look at the guys lap where the problem stood, literally.

“What do you want me to do?” He bullied Dongho with a question to which an answer should already be obvious. He asked it purely to force Dongho to say it.

“H—help.” The guy struggled to speak, acting faint even though all Minhyun was doing right now was just simply carressing him. Minhyun leaned his ear up against Donghos parted lips to hear his answer to the next curious question he had.

He teased. “Where?”

“You sick son of a—” Donghos eyes became red. He had his teeth grit to hold himself from yelling every vile profanity known to man.

“I hate you.” He muttered instead. “You love me.” Minhyun corrected. 

Dongho really did, he let it be known just with his eyes, they had become heart shaped at the sight of his boyfriend undoing his zipper. Underneath, Donghos inner thighs were still a bit red where Minhyun had been a few days ago. The tallest borrowed a pillow from under Donghos unsuspecting head to stuff it under his ass, rising it up for himself while the guys head then clumsily fell to the depths at the other end of the same mattress.

“Hey, do you think we can do it again by now?” Minhyun sounded eager, but obviously held back. Dongho hinged his dropped neck back up and shot an angry glare at him, blaming the pervert for causing him such misery. 

“Hell yeah.” Dongho nod. Minhyun made a stressed smile, his fingers dug into the sides of Donghos thighs. For the first time even he had gotten frustrated too, “Just be honest, I don’t want to mess you up.”

“Fuck.” Dongho hissed. Somehow he had gotten even more turned on after hearing him say that. “Huh?” Minhyun demanded a real answer.

“Just be slow, slower than the last time, okay?” Donghos neck was shaking when he tried to hold it up for this long without any support. Minhyun made a small smile then followed up by a nod.

But Dongho wasn’t done, “And for fucks sake, stop calling me cute while you are doing me.” He threatened the other. 

“Now you are just asking for too much.” Minhyun nagged by holding up a scolding finger at the other who spent a little too long lovingly gazing at it.

Once their rivalry had settled, Minhyun began a loud search through his bedside drawers. Dongho sat up a little and gave the other confident man a small nod to go ahead, while he himself laid there with his fingers already bit in-between his trembling teeth waiting for his own command.

Upon the confirmation from his boyfriend, Dongho arched his head back, and drew his neck long in front of Minhyun, who was positioned in-between his legs. The guy sucked his fingers into his mouth where they bend and crooked, twirling inside reaching to touch the roof of his own mouth to be covered with most spit. The other man hurried to get out of his own clothes at the sight of his boyfriend using those same wet fingers to gradually screw himself open.

He whined and made cute cries while doing it, cycling in-between the two digits before trying to fit both. Minhyun grabbed his wrist to stop him because he was being too impatient with himself. Instead Minhyun used his own, coating them heavy in lube first. The short man tried to spread himself wider for his friend, using his fingers to pull himself apart and receive the other male sooner. 

Minhyun became lost at the view of Dongho trashing his head in the pillows unable to wait to be filled, while the same guy had previously sworn on his name that he was straight, what kind of a morbid reality was he living in.

He really didn’t need the mans hand to be in the way, so he snatched his hands away, far enough so the guy would get the message to just be patient. Dongho whined, he thought that Minhyun had become pure evil for making him wait even a second.

Minhyun circled around with his digit first, a slow, soft circle that was meant as a test and then he began pushing in just the very tip of his finger, even though Dongho was going mad already. When he could finally feel it, anything at all at this point, his dick obscenely drooled onto his own stomach and this was even before they had started. Minhyun added more.

Dongho sang in a sweet voice just with Minhyuns fingers alone, it burned a little, but they were moving against the right spot. His body instantly crushed around the guys hand tight, swallowing the digits on its own. The guy tried to tilt his hips just so those fingers would reach a little deeper, but Minhyun started to purposely avoid it as a way to tease him. Dongho made a sob realizing Minhyun was deliberately bullying him.

To make up for it, the tallest began to jerk him. His wet fingers snug pulling back and forth across the length of the other. Donghos skin had become bright, even shiny behind Minhyuns small fingers that gripped him tighter from top to bottom.

The tallest shifted his knees closer and Donghos large thighs immediately accepted him, hugging him from both sides. Minhyun was just as hot as the body below him. By pressing his weight forwards, his hips had collided with the hips of the other forming a lock.

The fingers were now gone from messing up the mans hot swollen insides, Dongho quivered his lower half from the loss. Because at that point he couldn’t live without getting touched, he needed more, a lot more.

It was cold and scary without Minhyun, Dongho never thought that he would feel any of those things in a moment like this, but he did now. It was absurd how much he had fallen for the one guy it would be the most ridiculous for him to fall for. However,his heart throbbing thoughts of Minhyun bounced right out of his head when he heard the distant voice of the very same guy telling him something. Dongho had ignored it, but surely it was something that he shouldn’t have missed.

The tallest man pressed the head of his now plastic dressed dick at the entrance of his boyfriends body, already gradually moving himself inside, widening the edges with his fingertips to make himself fit. It was just as hard to do as the other time, every little push made Donghos chest raise from the mattress and fingernails turn into claws.

Minhyun continued to slowly drive in as far as he could, allowing himself to go down forwards and tower above Donghos chest. The shortest instantly hooked his arms around Minhyuns wide shoulders, spreading his hands over his boyfriends wet back. It was so hot, so unbearably hot.

Dongho was given small kisses, some on his neck others on the chin. He wanted to return them, but at this point the exhausted and tormented man had to weight his every movement to know if it was worth the struggle. His skin felt like it would shred like paper any minute, but at the same time it was so good with Minhyun he didn’t ever wish for it to stop.

Minhyun chuckled at Dongho and the guy chuckled back. He kissed him on the lips right before what was about to happen next. He had moved, it started as a slow thrust out and then a more vicious back in, ending with a slap. That way, after repeating it a few times, it became an actual rhythm.

In the midst of all the heat and the humidity, one of Minhyuns more ruthless thrusts made Dongho break into an alarming yelp. Minhyun instantly stopped, apologetically burying his nose in-between the gap of Donghos jaw and neck.

“I am sorry, I’ll be more careful.” He promised. Dongho replied with a snort, “It is not that.”

“Then what is it?” Minhyun paused waiting for the truth while his blinking lashes tickled against Donghos neck. The big guy had a difficulty admitting it, “It feels good, jackass.”

Minhyuns heart froze over with ice and then instantly melted after Donghos words. He began to flush the man with even more kisses, but the guy didn’t want them now. The shortest whined while trying to rotate his hips to cause friction for himself since Minhyun wasn’t giving him any.

The tallest took note and quickly began to go back to where he was before. Finally pleased, Dongho only saw stars past that point, a tremor rocked his body. He made sweet voices and his body dripped with wet that had been tainting the sheets.

It was a clash of oily skin, smearing one upon the other into a mix. Minhyun no longer kissed the other man, instead his mouth was attached to the mans closest neck without a purpose. The tallest left him with a hickey on top of a hickey, Dongho mewled his pretty voice throughout.

Eventually Minhyun was building up faster than ever, while Dongho below him already stood on the verge of passing out from everything done to him. His angry fingers had left trails of red across Minhyuns back that would probably last.

But the tallest wasn’t bothered. His hips now grind and rolled into Donghos made frail wide hips without any pushback anymore, his body had become so soft and giving. They had become one. Wet squelches and the sound of skin clashing would overpower the sounds of their own rabid breaths.

At one point Minhyun roared, clutching to Donghos dick instead of his own when he felt he was about to hit his limit. He jerked the other man hoping to somehow time it, only getting helpless gasps and cries for help from the mouth of the other.

“Minhyun, uwa—uwaa!” He cried.

Somewhere lost inside of that loud, breathing state, Dongho could suddenly feel his friend had reached his release while inside of him. Because when Minhyuns breaths had slowed, his hand no longer moved. Indeed, Minhyuns heart was racing, his body emptied. He then apologized to Dongho for not moving by smiling, it took him a while to collect himself. 

Dongho responded with a groan, clutching to his own stomach which was still stuffed by Hwang who hadn’t drawn out yet. Minhyun moved just a tiny bit, and all of a sudden Dongho felt as if his seemingly bloated stomach would explode, his skin felt tight and muscles so pressured he couldn’t stop himself from leaking more. 

“Minhyun, I am about to—” He announced, while pulling his shoulders in. His boyfriend was dying of the cuteness at this point.

He tightened his stroking fingers, to earn a moan from his pleased lover, yet an evil grin was already on his face. “Please don’t stop.” Dongho begged him with almost tears appearing in his eyes. This was too good for him.

Minhyun snickered, “What gave you that idea?” Dongho spoke more quietly, “You are always so mean.”

More thick beads of white crept from the gaps of Minhyuns fingers that he ignored while viciously stroking him. He kept jerking until Dongho finally released thick strings into his palm, the act was accompanied by his powerful yell.

“Woah.” Minhyun gaped his mouth in awe, now staring at the oily, leaking body of the other man who looked so ill and defeated.

Minhyun couldn’t hold himself from touching such a rare display. He gently caressed Kang all the way through his high, then moved his careful, rough hands to trace muscles and dents over Donghos wide chest now sparkling with sweat. 

The shorter man whined to even the slightest touch, his whole body felt bruised, like he had fallen from a high place. Small aftershocks of what felt like jolts of tiny electricity still happened in his body, his fingers trembled and voice had faded completely.

Minhyun wanted to hang in there for longer, for as long as eternity. Dongho had his eyes only slightly parted, the corner of his mouth desperately trying to curl into a smile despite all odds.

As soon as Minhyun tried to pull out of the loose body laying under him Dongho woke up, to sharply gasp. “D—don’t move yet, I just came.” He winced in discomfort every time Minhyun wriggled around inside of him. 

“Huh?” Minhyun jolt.

“Feels weird!” He held his palm over his own stomach as if he could feel Minhyun still being inside of him like that. “Aah, h-hang on!” He yelped as without any warning, Minhyun slicked out in one long drag. 

As a natural response, Donghos body reacted by instantly clamping down and around the other mans still reddened head of his withering dick that was being pulled out, causing the tall guy to let out a high hiss. Not expecting that, Minhyun had lost his balance, falling forwards at Dongho which resulted in him somehow accidentally shoving his knee right between the guys legs on his way down. 

The two of them erupted into an argument, not long before they both ended up sobbing in one another’s arms while both clutched to their hurting groins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyone still use dvd's?


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sry for the little abrupt ending ive been writing this for some time and i didnt want for it to be too long! heehe
> 
> also i went back and wrote in an extra part for aron just because his character has been getting fucked over in everything i write and i didnt want to leave him like that this time haha
> 
> any of the ways . hope u enjoy .

On an early morning, when the sun should be flooding the room, but was still trapped behind thick curtains, Dongho found Minhyun still in his bedroom sitting in the middle of the bed with a blanket carefully draped over his head, as if he was almost trying to seamlessly fit in with the environment. Obviously, since Dongho had seen him it wasn’t such a good hiding spot after all.

The guy had an upcoming play to prepare for, it was the final curtain call fir it, so he suddenly he wanted to hide from it. Minhyun feared he was starting to forget his own lines, after all he had barely even practiced while his mind had been busy all day filled up with thoughts about his new boyfriend.

After finally overcoming the small urge to smother the body under that blanket, Dongho snuck onto the bed and crawled until he could poke his head under it, the blanket was formed like a tent with Minhyuns huge noggin serving as the pole in the middle. Inside of the tent Kang met anxious Minhyun.

“Are you nervous?” Dongho acted more worried than intrigued. “Don’t be worried.” He spawned a small smile, hoping to convince the other.

The tallest nod, he was indeed nervous. Minhyun wasn’t fully confident today and that is exactly what had made him more uneasy. Dongho felt sad for him now.

Minhyun then witnessed Dongho as he head-butted his stomach and wrap his arms around him, hugging him by laying in the mans lap. The tall man was instantly cured, he even began to giggle from Dongho being this cute. Minhyuns slow hand creeped to stroke Donghos curly hair that had grown almost past the mans eyes when it was down, it smelled of Minhyuns shampoo.

Dongho was adorable like this, whenever he wasn’t trying to act all tough and grumpy or doing the usual name-calling procedure. It showed that Minhyun had really earned the guys full trust and broken down those numerous walls that Dongho had built in the way.

“Hey, I’ll be fine now. Really.” Minhyun laughed at the guy who had sprawled out like and oversized kitten in his lap, nuzzling his nose up against his friends tummy.

“Nuh.” Dongho didn’t feel like Minhyun had really fully addressed himself and needed to be cuddled even more. 

Before Minhyun could protest, hysterical giggles made their way out from underneath the same blanket they shared. The yelling came from Minhyun who was being kissed by Dongho through the shirt over his stomach all over.

“Ah, stop that!” He begged, still in middle of laughing. 

Dongho did indeed stop, but his lips had not abandoned the intent to rip the guys shirt apart. Dongho stared up at the other with his big beady hamster eyes, the fabric of the shirt bitten in-between his needle sharp gritted teeth.

Eyeballs shaking, Minhyun covered the lower half of his face with the back of his hand, his stress had suddenly returned. Dongho slowly gaped his mouth open and the shirt fell free from his pretty lips. Minhyun took another moment to stare his boyfriend down before saying anything that could be interpreted as weird.

Instead of words, actions spoke louder. Minhyun had reached his hand to tilt Donghos chin up, the same man continued to stare evilly at him. 

That sensual stare, Dongho could never mistake it. That very shine in his eyes – it was Minhyuns look of war. Dongho accepted the dueling invitation and began to rise to wrestle his boyfriend for dominance. A moment later the blanket tent had fallen and two the two bodies appeared to flap around under it. 

Occasionally, from underneath, Minhyun would let out a snicker – Dongho, a scream.

The veil of the blanket was gone and Dongho finally saw the light again. He also now saw Minhyun towering over him, having his hands pinned above his head by that jerk like a captive. Wild breaths meant that Dongho had ran out of air under there. Minhyun had become victorious after their tickle and tussle and now his prize laid right down here under the weight of his arms.

Dongho instantly made a grumpy grimace, for once he wanted to be the one to push Minhyun down and do the same to the tall man. Even though he was much stronger, a martial artist, it meant absolutely nothing when Minhyun always had the height advantage.

Deeply upset by his own predicament, Dongho had no choice, but to make that pouty, upset face at the other, the color of red filled in his cheeks no matter how angry he pretended to be, in order to hide it.

“Want me to kiss you?” Minhyun asked an honest question. Dongho hated defeat, he wanted it, yet turned Minhyun down out of spite. 

“Don’t you have lines to rehearse?” He mocked him instead. Minhyun laughed it off as always.

“Well, there is a kiss scene in the script.” He told Dongho, who was instantly sweating, “Really?”

A nod is what made Donghos lips thin and shaky. “It is just a peck on top of the hand though.” Minhyuns voice was now playful, teasing.

He let go of one of Donghos arms he had been holding and borrowed it to demonstrate. “Like this.” Minhyun placed a kiss across Donghos knuckles, his eyes intense and glaring at his boyfriend.

The shortest narrowed his eyes and made a pained expression, it felt like his heart would blow out of his chest in the most gruesome way like a bomb, spewing blood and bits of gore all over the nicely painted bedroom walls.

Dongho swallowed spit down his throat, it popped from his neck like a fish bobber, and then sank right back down under his skin. Minhyun could see that his little friend was getting flustered, but he didn’t dare to laugh, only eerily smile.

“Give it back.” Dongho demanded. This jerk totally acted like he owned Kang, he was insufferable.

Dongho then snatched his hand back to himself and sat up the quickest he ever had with a changed expression, as if he was back in the military and the captain had knocked down his dorm door to announce a war drill.

The tallest gave him a quizzical, ”Hm?” The bastard was really acting coy and slimy now and Dongho hated it so much.

“Minhyun, you have to rehearse. The play is tonight.” Dongho set his own and his boyfriends priorities right, implying that for the greater good, they should not be shagging each other on the date of the theatre play that meant his career for Hwang.

MInhyun chuckled like crazy, hiding his grin behind his hand. Dongho couldn’t stand him, the jerk was a succubus, putting a devil spell on Dongho for nothing, but his own amusement.

“Hey,” Dongho stayed still for a second, holding off before running away. “That part totally wasn’t part of the script, right?” He asked, you know, just in case.

“What part?” Minhyun spoke like he was an idiot. Obviously – the part where he flashes the other person his flirty eyes. “You know exactly what I am talking about!” Dongho argued.

Indeed, Minhyun was having fun. He paused to chuckle, and then answer truthfully, “Depends, should I improvise?” Minhyun had sheepishly suggested, gesturing himself biting towards Donghos fingers.

This is where Dongho finally realized that he was being fucked with, “You sicken me.” He made the other laugh more. 

After a little bit, Dongho began to chuckle a little too. Minhyuns bright smile was contagious, especially when paired with a silly conversation like this.

Donghos friends had gathered without him, hanging out at school on an early morning. Jonghyun was the last one out of the three to arrive already finding Aaron halfway passed out while Mingi was still in the middle of talking to himself.

The topic of the conversation appeared to be about Minhyuns theatre play, he was having a grand finale later today and all of Donghos closest friends had gotten free tickets from him personally. Mingi proudly waved his.

Considering that the play was such a big deal for Hwang, it wasn’t too hard to guess where Dongho was right now instead of being at school today. Those two gross lovebirds were probably already spending time together even while Minhyun rehearsed.

Meanwhile, while Mingi kept talking, Aaron was doing a very piss poor job at hiding his sullen mood today. He was drowsy and easily agitated, and this whole time he had been staring at Mingi, as if he was holding himself back from biting his head off. Aaron too had been given a ticket and was planning on going with his friends as well.

Jonghyun sat down and listened in to the still ongoing conversation. “I hope that guy isn’t too rough on Dongho.” Mingi spoke about Hwang, a pout went up on his face.

Jonghyun was shocked, “Why? I thought that Minhyun is a nice guy? He is even getting a puppy for Kang.” 

The guy suddenly felt nervous as anxious eyes stopped to look at him, he added more to make himself more creditable, “There’s pictures of him picking out dog collars and leashes on his photo gallery.”

“Minhyun is not getting him a dog.” Mingi deadpanned. Silence ensued.

“Oh.” Jonghyun realized. He had abruptly swallowed the rest of his words, tilting his chin down in slight disappointment that there would be no actual dogs for him to pet, “That sucks.”

“So, what is up with ya’?” Jonghyun point to the gloomy person sitting beside him, changing the subject from the exciting upcoming play and the strange details of the couples relationship to Aaron.

Aaron raised his chin from drooping and responded in a hitch, “I met up with Raina.” His words were slow and sad, in addition to that he also looked pretty sleep deprived because of something.

“Who?” Mingi formed a giant circle with his mouth, while leaning in front of Jonghyun to hear it the best.

“My ex girlfriend, you moron.” Aaron scolded the other man for his ignorance, “I tried to iron things out, you know? But in the end, we decided not to get back together.”

Aaron sighed, “She is already thinking about seeing someone else, and I am still a giant mess.” 

The mans next words sounded less defeated than just now, he suddenly sounded rather chirpy, “Well, it looks like I’m going to stay as a celibate from now on.”

Mingi chuckled, Jonghyun tried to laugh along even though it seemed a bit morbid at the moment. “Aw, don’t be like that!” Mingi told him.

Aaron jokingly winked, placing his elbow down on the table just to look more coy, “Unless one of you choose to volunteer.”

Mingi laughed louder, “Yeah, our Jonghyun right here.” He suddenly grabbed Jonghyun and pulled him into a forceful headlock.

The guy didn’t like being pulled in a headlock and having his hair ruffled, as soon as he was let go he touched the top of his head to see if his scalp was still intact. This time only, it was.

Even after a small laugh, Aaron still didb’t feel all that well. “I’ll see you at the play guys.” Aaron wiped his lips after laughing, drained of energy. However, him getting up seemed a little sudden to the other two.

“You aren’t gonna pick us up?” Mingi pout again, like it was the only thing he ever knew how to do.

“Try getting there without me, I’ll probably be napping until the very last minute of me heading out.” Aaron rubbed his tired eyes and sat up from his seat, the legs of his chair made a distracting noise across the floor of the universities cafeteria room.

A suspicious pair of eyes followed him to the exit, feeling somewhat concerned for the poor guy. It looked like he was going back to sleep off whatever was bothering him.

The theater where the play was happening was bright late at night, even the outside lobby that welcomed people from outside looked luxurious and high class. People had come while dressed up in nice fancy suits. Some people, fans of the acting cast, had even bought big bouquets of flowers as gifts.

Jonghyun felt so out of place walking in while wearing his long coat that had badly patched had holes in its pockets.

The place was big, it took him a while to get over his awe, while looking around and gape his mouth at the shiny gold and glass chandeliers drooping from the high ceiling. He wondered if it could even be easy to find Dongho and Minhyun in such a place. The two were probably backstage together, but how the hell could he get there without having been granted access.

It was not long before the musical was about to start, Jonghyun had gotten a text from Mingi telling him to hurry up, the guy was already seated inside. But before Jonghyun got to hurry and walk past the suit wearing men at the main door, his phone began to violently ring in his pocket. He stopped and apologized to anyone who could’ve heard it, going into his pocket to shut it off. But he paused when recognizing Aarons name on the screen. 

Somehow he already knew that Aaron was not inside with Mingi, and Mingi was probably under the impression that the elder was coming in with Jonghyun. What made it all strange was the fact that the guy probably wouldn’t call if he was already running late.

Jonghyuns heart suddenly dropped when his mind began to theorize things. Definitely, something must of happened to his friend on the way here. Jonghyun ran back away from the theatre entrance to pick up that strange call.

One short scary phone call later, the guy had ran away from the theater completely, his heart pumping at max speeds from the jog. He had now arrived at a small pub restaurant only a block away from the theatre where an apron clad female employee was waiting for him, she seemed stressed.

She point her chin at the root of her troubles, Aaron passed out at his drinking table and refusing to leave the place. Despite the sad reveal, Jonghyun sighed in relief.

“Did he ask for me?” Jonghyun turned back to the employee. He tried not to sound bothered, but because Aaron had forced the employee use his phone to call for a rescue, he had now missed out on the start of the play he was so excited to see.

The woman began to speak, her voice matched the one calling from Aarons phone before. “You were the only number at the top of his contact list who actually picked up.” The woman pleaded. 

Jonghyun nod, understanding the woman, because he knew for damn sure that in this situation nobody would want to deal with calling police just to throw this guy out.

Although Jonghyun hated to come out here for him, he still felt a bit sad for Aaron knowing that the guy had no one else who could come for him tonight. It looked like Jonghyun was his only friend tonight.

“I’ll take him away.” Jongyun offered, much to the bliss of the young waitress who could now finally close up shop after maintenance.

Jonghyun went over to Aaron and began to lift him up from his seat, arm over his shoulder, treating him like a drunk person. Aaron wasn’t drunk, he was just majorly sleep deprived and let it be known by yelling and clawing back at his savior.

“Hey, you—put me down this instant you scoundrel!” Aarons lousy yelling voice filled the whole room, gathering eyes of everyone still present.

“Aaron, what is wrong with you!” Jonghyun whispered back at him, angered at his friend for ending up this way.

The short male was too drowsy to give a clear answer. “I couldn’t go there Jonghyun, I couldn’t.” He spoke to the other, but of course knowing that Jonghyun wouldn’t understand.

He had ended up this way all because of Dongho. Because of that jerk he hadn’t slept well for days. As a friend he was happy for the man for finally settling down and starting a permanent relationship. However, Aaron couldn’t help that he still liked that jerk, and no matter how hard he tried to get over him, it was just too damn hard today.

Going to that play and watching the talented Minhyun on stage, knowing that Dongho was with such a great person tore him apart a little. Aaron had been his friend for longer, so he wished he had realized the brotherly affection that he had for the younger male was something entirely different a lot sooner. And now it was too late since he had no chance to win up against someone like Hwang.

In the end, he skipped the play. He headed to the neighboring dining district, because wanted to eat something. He had not eaten that morning right after meeting his ex and apologizing for failing her too. She forgave him, although she still didn’t believe that he legitimately liked Dongho. Aaron had ended up in this pub, had left his wallet on the table for crows to pick and gone to sleep as if he had just paid for a bed.

“What happened to you Aaron?” His friend worried dearly, but all he got was a displeased groan. 

“Did you fight with a friend?” Jonghyun asked again, same response.

“Your ex?” Aaron groaned harder, at this point the guy was just throwing out random names.

“Dongho?” After Jonghyun had guessed correctly, Aaron froze in place. 

He tried to not show it, but Jonghyun could tell it had something to do with that guy. Jonghyun tried to make sense of this, but it did not make any sense to him no matter how hard he tried to read Aaron.

“Just leave me alone.” Aaron begged, “I am so tired.” He barely got the last part out, before his chin dropped down and droopy, and his pale eyes became shut from exhaustion.

Jonghyun was careful when making him stand, only then the two headed out and began a slow path down a sidewalk past the all the noise and the roaring streetcars that kept Aaron from passing out. Jonghyun didn’t want to question the poor guy too much, but his worries grew like a tumor.

The silent walk made Jonghyun think of things that could have caused this. Eventually, something had clicked in his head when remembering something crucial that Aaron had said prior.

Jonghyun remembered their conversation from ages ago, outside their university at the amphitheater. He had guessed it, only partially, but he knew it should have something to do with Dongho.

“Aaron, you had said that you used to have a ‘friend’ who got feelings for their own best friend, right?” He asked, but to Aarons ears it was teasing.

Aaron gave the guy a raised eyebrow, “I said it wasn’t me.” Jonghyun snickered, he wasn’t a fool and knew Aaron was talking about himself. “Fine. Yeah, It happened to me.” Aaron sighed and admitted to his sin.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Jonghyun sucked in his lips, “Who is your best friend?”

Aaron twitched. Wasn’t that answer already obvious, “Why is everyone so stupid? Why does nobody believe me!” He yelled looking down at his shoes.

When he had told his girlfriend that he liked Kang, she refused to believe it, when he confessed to Kang himself, the guy asked him if he was drunk. Even he himself had denied it for the longest time. So it didn’t help that Jonghyun, of all people, didn’t believe him either.

“Calm down, Aaron!” Jonghyun didn’t mean to ever upset him. The eldest fought back enough to nudge himself off from hanging on Jonghyuns shoulder, the two men were now in a stand off.

Indeed Jonghyun found it hard to believe that Aaron fancied Dongho, instead he clung to the possibility that the guy probably had a female friend he considered his best friend. Of course not, the answer was already there, plain as day to Aaron, but not so much to Jonghyun. 

Knowing his friend would not believe him anyways, Kwak decided to say whatever, because it’s not like it would matter at all. So he looked straight into Jonghyuns eyes and said, “You wanna know who it is?” 

Jonghyun watched Aaron move his lips, “You are.”

He might as well be the best friend at this point, since Aaron felt like he had lost Kang as a friend. If he wished to get over him, then it had to be at the cost of never seeing him again. Aaron had already made up his mind back there, alone in that pub.

“What are you saying?” Jonghyun shrugged, writing Aaron off as it simply being too tired to function, because the words he said made no sense.

Aaron remained static, his eyes blinking him in and out of consciousness. He wished that Jonghyun had let him sleep back there for at least five minutes more.

“I am taking you to my home.” Jonghyun reminded himself and put the guy back over his shoulder. This time Aaron didn’t fight back, he was already out cold from the moment his arm met the warm shoulder of Jonghyun.

By the time Jonghyun made it to his parents apartment, it was clear that he wouldn’t be able to make it back to watch the rest of the play in time, and besides, he didn’t feel comfortable leaving Aaron alone in his own bed for the night.

So as a compromise, Jonghyun decided to join him. He laid down next to Aaron who slept on his side, dressed in pajama clothes that had been lend to him by his friend. The tallest man settle behind him, and kindly shared the same duvet with his friend. Jonghyun was a good friend, he cuddled the other man in his sleep trying to give him comfort.

That comfort is what allowed Aaron to sleep, and he quickly began to dream of Kang. 

He found himself next to Dongho, Minhyun was there too, he holding his boyfriend from the back as he was standing on all fours. Aaron was kneeling on top of a soft mattress, looking down at the guy who raised his head from his friends lap and met his pretty amber eyes with him.

Donghos eyes were sparkly, his pupils big and he imagined them being heart shaped. Dongho was relieved to see him and was smiling at him. And of course, just like in most of Aarons dreams, Dongho wasn’t wearing anything at all. That meant neither was him, and neither was the third person there.

Aaron glanced up at Minhyun who sat behind Kang. He had that shit eating grin on his face. Aaron shook his head in his dream to instead imagine a different scene of him and Kang, one where it would be just them two.

The short male reminisced how nice it was back when it was just the two of them, two best friends, partners in crime. However, he realized now, that this was not actually a pleasant dream, it had become a nightmare – a nightmare. 

Aaron woke up, terrified and scared inside of a strangers house, wearing a strangers clothing. 

Next to him was a familiar face, still soundly asleep. It took him a while to stop being so disorientated and understand he was at Jonghyuns house tonight. Aaron felt bad for the guy for helping him. He figured that Dongho would feel so sad that Jonghyun had not made it to watch his boyfriend perform.

“Aaron?” Jonghyun raised his cheek from the pillow, his eyes trying to blink open despite them drawing shut against his will. A deep grunt present in his sleepy voice.

“I am sorry. You should have gone.” Aaron regretted causing this much trouble.

“No.” Jonghyun silenced him, he wasn’t angry about that. Their eyes met in the dark, but the way Jonghyun stared at Aaron was so intense when he was tired.

“You keep waking up, this is the fifth time already.” Jonghyun surprised him. “Really?” Aaron had no recollection of the previous four times, but he didn’t doubt it.

“We can talk about it, if you’d like.” Jonghyun offered. “Talk about what?” Aaron felt like somehow he wasn’t on the same page with him.

“You said—” Jonghyun started to speak and when he did a fountain of water began to come down from Aarons forehead. Now Aaron had to remember what the fuck he had said to him, he had no recollection of that either.

Turns out, people do bizarre stuff when they are extremely sleep deprived. Aaron found out about it as soon as Jonghyun finished his sentence. “You said that you like me.” The tallest spoke.

“Did I?” Aaron felt heat hit him at the back of his neck like a whip, along with it he also had gulped. “Did you not?” Jonghyun actually gulped as well.

“I don’t know what I said, if I did say anything then just forget about it.” Aaron told him.

“Listen,” Aaron didn’t mean to sound like an ungrateful jerk, but he did anyways, “I’ll find my own way back to my place, you don’t need to worry about me further.”

“Back home? But it is the middle of the night.” Jonghyun watched Aaron ponder if he even had enough in his wallet for at least a halfway cab ride.

“Don’t go. You are not in a good shape.” Jonghyun sounded desperate now, he was worried to death. 

“Nah, I can fend for myself now.” Aaron shrugged him off, getting up to set off. It wasn’t like he hated being warmed by another body. Jonghyun was a nice guy and all, but it was because Aaron felt like he didn’t deserve anything done for him tonight.

In a short time span, Jonghyun had panicked, and in middle of his panic he had grabbed his friend by the shoulder to yank him back. The thing was that Jonghyun wasn’t too well balanced on the bed himself, so as soon as Aaron tumbled down he became pinched under him.

“Ow, fuck.” Aaron hissed as his hip had hit a hard part on the way down, probably an elbow or a knee, it wasn’t clear until he opened his eyes to see what had made his soft landing a lot more crunchier than expected.

Jonghyuns face was pinned directly under his jaw, he had gone as pale as a ghost, wide eyed and stiff. “What the—?” Aaron cursed, it wasn’t even a second later he tried to jump off, but foreign arms on his back stopped him.

No matter how much he struggled to wriggle out of it, he was held down as if tied up, soon he realized that he was being hugged. “Don’t go.” Jonghyun begged next to his ear.

The guy sounded sad, almost as if he was on the verge of tears. “Please, you have to sleep. You haven’t slept.” The man continued to plead, at this point Aaron had gone stiff too.

“Stop running away from me.” His voice now sounded different, broken and pitchy along with the reoccurring sniffles that came from his nose. 

“Huh?” Is all that came of the flabbergasted Aaron. “I am worried sick!” Jonghyun didn’t mean to cry.

“Sorry.” Aaron didn’t realize how serious his friend had been. In the very end, Aaron had decided to listen to the guy and rolled back under the blanket.

The actors stood on a high stage all at once bowing down to the audience, marking the end of the final day of the play. The whole theatre filled with cheers and claps from the audience. Minhyun looked around and saw his co-stars in their costumes become teary-eyed not wanting to leave the stage yet, while he himself couldn’t wait to get backstage and meet up his boyfriend waiting there. 

The backstage was very busy and crowded with actors and staff, all posing for pictures, accepting gifts and flowers of congratulation from their loved ones and fans. Minhyun almost jogged chest first straight into Dongho while trying to look for the short man over the tall crowd.

The happy guy instinctively grappled his arms over Minhyuns, not letting him leave the unintended hug. Dongho looked up at the other with what looked like tiny stars in his eyes. He was star struck by Minhyuns cool performance. Dongho had never been interested in live action theatre before, stuff like that only made him yawn, but after seeing Minhyun up there his whole outlook had changed.

Minhyun could barely hold him when Dongho suddenly jumped higher for a longer hug. His reaction was to laugh at the silly man. “Stop it, you are embarrassing me.” He spoke.

Donghos response was to hug him even tighter, still refusing to let him go out of spite. Minhyun raised his eyes away from the birds eye view down at the top of the other mans head. And glanced up to see his female co-star and an old friend, Eunwoo staring directly at the two, actively judging.

From afar the woman was actually impressed that Minhyun still hasn’t dumped the guy yet. Maybe that meant Dongho was the one. Either way, she raised up her hand to gesture a snarky thumbs up at the guy. 

Minhyun flashed angry teeth at her, partially blaming her for setting him up with the misfortune of getting involved with this dude. She flashed her own row of fangs and returned to accept more gifts from her line of male fans.

Dongho let go with a real deep breath after having accidentally depleted himself of oxygen against Minhyuns chest. He frantically remembered to reunite with his friend Mingi who had reappeared in the backstage to congratulate too.

It was a bit bittersweet seeing Dongho leave even for a second. Minhyun realized how terribly lonely he was without him. Today, on the final day of his play, no one else had come to see him, but just Dongho. Luckily, judging by the looks of it, the guy had adored it more than anyone else ever would.

Minhyun watched his smiley, giggly boyfriend from a distance and couldn’t help, but to grin too. It was like time had halt in the moment, his eyes had tunnel visioned and everything else in the world appeared to be a blur to him all except for Kang.

A sudden phone call ruined it all, Minhyun reached into his shoulder strap bag to wipe the screen and answer the unknown caller. His eyes trembled in their sockets seeing who it was – his step mom.

He picked up to that scary, monotone voice of hers. She congratulated him for the successful finish of the play, but her words sounded empty. Minhyun knew she did not care, because she nor the rest of his family hadn’t even come to see him perform live.

The woman offered a family dinner however, inviting him to join her at his fathers home. Apparently, his father had returned home from overseas, but Minhyun had not known about it yet, he was always the last one to know such things.

As Minhyun listened to her speak fake congratulations, his eyes drifted away into the distance, becoming locked on his boyfriend. Dongho was hopping from foot to foot in excitement before Mingi. Minhyun smiled so hard seeing him happy, that he didn’t notice for the first time in ages his eyes had began to tear up from joy.

Minhyun had never felt what it was like to have a family before, but he could sense that meeting Kang was the closest thing to it. Dongho had become a family to him now. 

He held the phone to his ear and told his step mother not to wait for him, he won’t be coming. Before she had the chance to raise her voice at Minhyun, the man had hanged up to run over and embrace Kang. Dongho was so surprised to see Minhyun cry, he supposed that the guy was only being emotional after the final day of his play. 

“Woah!” The shortest was dragged away from his friend and instead Minhyun steered him into a different crowd of people, strangers.

Donghos knees grew weak, he was now suddenly face to face with famous directors and TV personnel, all of them close working colleagues in the film industry, which was also Donghos college major. 

What on earth was Hwang doing, Dongho instantly thought.

“I would like to introduce you all to someone.” The actor began to speak in favor of his film student boyfriend. The famous men suddenly learned to recognize Kang, and acted happy to meet him once Minhyun had introduced him. 

Once Dongho realized what his boyfriend was doing for him, his eyes began to sparkle. The doors of his future career were open and this was a literal dream come true. It would be nice if he could get a job as an intern in the field with these famous people, which was actually exactly what Hwang Minhyun was doing.

Under the veil of deep night, the two men headed out of the building together. It was a quiet night already. Most of the staff had left before them and the parking lot outside had become almost emptied out of cars.

Before they had even reached the car Minhyun rode, Dongho stopped for a brief moment to look up in the sky and stare in awe at the stars visible only tonight while the sky was clean of clouds. Minhyun stopped too, but not to look at the stars, he had stopped to look at Dongho instead. 

“I remember when I first met you, you were looking at stars too.” The tallest chuckled at the ironic moment.

Dongho looked back down, “How do you remember that?” Surprisingly, despite his goldfish memory he did remember that as well.

Minhyuns answer was simple, short and sweet, “I remember our every moment spent together. I liked you on first glance.”

Dongho started to blush on the spot. His eyebrows slid down on his forehead into a frown, because he was mad at himself for being so easily flustered by the man and his venomous words.

“For real?” Dongho couldn’t imagine that Minhyun had fallen for him on first sight, there had to be even a second of consideration in there somewhere.

“I have never pretended about liking you Kang.” After these words, a great pause took place in the middle of Minhyuns sentence in preparation for him to say the bravest thing. “I love you.” Minhyun admit.

“Ah,” Dongho had already known that, it was pretty damn obvious already. Yet he still had accidentally let his surprise come right out of his mouth. 

“Me too, I guess.” Dongho shyly scratched his chin, his words had no hesitation in them.

The two idly stood there both waiting for something to happen. It took Dongho a few more seconds to alpha up and speak first.

“Minhyun, I have a kind of a major question.” He told, hands growing more clammy by the second. “What is it?” Minhyun noticed his sweaty neck from a mile away.

“First of all, sorry for asking this this late into our relationship.” Dongho was awkward, his eyes darting from looking at Minhyun to looking at the ground and back, as if he was too ashamed to make constant eye contact.

The tallest male already tried to guess what it could be – perhaps a proposal? A plan to elope and make vows, under this very same romantic sky?

Dongho took a real deep breath and spoke, “At home, the matching toothbrushes you got for us. Is mine the blue or the green one?” 

Minhyun blinked once in surprise, “The green one.”

“Oh, fuck.” Dongho hiss.

“What the hell do you mean by – Oh, fuck?” Minhyun narrowed his eyes in suspicion, ready to choke slam this asshole. Dongho pleaded for his innocence, “I thought that the blue one was mine! How could I have known?”

“Dongho, how—the hell?” Minhyun was baffled, refusing to believe it, “Did you never check if it was wet before hand?”

“I don’t know! I always thought that you were wetting it for me beforehand, because you were so considerate!” Dongho cried in grief.

“Hell, Kang. You are a real piece of work, I’ll tell you that.” Minhyun frowned with the utmost disappointment. It didn’t actually matter to Minhyun that they have been accidentally washing their teeth with each others spit for days, what mattered to him was his honor that was not hurt.

Minhyun sighed again, “I can’t believe I am going to have to put up with you from now on.” He complained to his boyfriend, almost as if they were an old bickering straight couple.

The tallest had to imagine what other trouble this guy would bring, “I hope you haven’t forgotten to study for your test at least.” Of all other things that Dongho could have fucked up, this one was the most likely.

Dongho suddenly straightened his back, which was an obvious symptom of guilt, “Ehh, don’t bother. I already failed the test!” He did a proud grin.

“What?” Minhyun responded so quick that he almost saw white.

Dongho nervously chuckled at the ground, his elbow high up to scratch the very back of his head. “I might take time off from school during the next academic year.” He thought it would be better, that way he would have more time to spend with Minhyun before the dude gets called to serve in the military one day.

“Dude, your parents are gonna kill me, they entrusted me to be responsible for raising you!” Minhyun objected the mans plan.

Without telling Minhyun he had just been kidding, well partially kidding, Dongho walked off to reach the car first, but not before turning around to look back at the still standing Minhyun and flash him his mean tongue.

“Kang Dongho! Wait up!” Minhyun yelled, stomping after him. His offended strut guided by the dim light of the moon that had appeared to watch over the two bickering voices from afar.

A new morning had come, a brand new start of another long weekday awaited. Mingi plunged down in a seat inside of the same dinner hall that he and his friends always bothered. Mingi groaned from exhaustion, still remembering the play he had watched last night.

Surely, it wasn’t as fun watching it without his friends except for the stupidly excited Dongho, in fact it was so boring Mingi kept falling asleep. He could’ve slept well too if it wasn’t for that bastard Kang who kept shaking him by the elbow to force him to look at his cool and handsome boyfriend every five minutes.

The tall man released a phone from his tightly clenched palm, opening up unread messages from Jonghyun that had been sent to him earlier in the morning. That guy was always up early for sure, earlier than Mingi could ever manage to get out of bed in the mornings of lectures.

Mingi didn’t bother texting Aaron to know where he had run off last night, knowing he was a scoundrel, it made sense he would forget or simply skip it. But the always proper and responsible Jonghyun? Him not showing up without a notice was very unlikely.

Instead of texting, the men had traded voice mail messages. Mingi had asked Jonghyun which fucking hole he had fallen into the night before and he seemingly got his answer to that very question the minute he played back Jonghyuns voiced reply.

“Ah, sorry Mingi! I got a sudden tummy ache on the way there!” Jonghyun apologized in the recorded voice message.

That sounded like a whole load of bullshit to Mingi, yet he didn’t want to bother fighting over it and let it slide for this hour of the morning. However, right before the recording ended, there was a voice heard only very briefly in the background which would cut off right at the end. Mingi was now intrigued, he replayed the audio one more time and listened closely to hear it.

It sounded like a whine or a whimper, very familiar to the voice of someone Mingi knew. His ears perked when he figured who it sounded like, it had to be Aaron. But then why was Aaron with Jonghyun, Mingi gained even more questions. He cranked up the volume and played it again until the voice was clear.

Mingis eyes widened, his eyebrows arched across his forehead, causing for the spot in-between them to wrinkle. The voice whined, “Jonghyun, ah feels good—”

Confused now more ever in his whole life, he turned on the volume to the max to hear it one more time. A voice in Jonghyuns room, clearly sounding like Aarons repeating, “Jonghyun, feels good—”

Mingi felt a hundred needles pierce his back, every follicle of hair on his body had stood up, even goosebumps formed across his arms. Speak of the devil, right as Mingi looked away from the shaky screen of his phone, he saw the two guys coming into the cafeteria at once through the same door, walking towards him.

This couldn’t be real. No, this had to be some kind of a big prank – Mingi clattered his teeth in fear, hoping he had misunderstood.

The two were walking closer and closer to him, their necks tall already looking across the cafeteria to spot out Mingi. Sudden terror had come over the man, he decided to flee.

The shaken, baffled man fell out of his seat and ducked down, using the legs of his chair as a tactical cover, and from there began to desperately crawl away to safety before being seen, even if it had to be on his all fours. 

“Bro, do you think he is mad at us for ditching him?” Jonghyun asked to the other after they had failed to notice Mingis foot dragging on the floor to find cover behind a tall trash bin next to the exit door.

Aaron shrugged his shoulders, “Probably, let’s just leave him alone for now. You know how mean he can get.” 

The two guys continued to chuckle together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you reached the end!! i want to thank you for tolerating this and putting up with me haha. i hope it was fun
> 
> if you maybe have any questions, comments, suggestions, threats - you can reach me via curiouscat.me/fishdongho or @fishdongho on the tweeter
> 
> .
> 
> if u care about what im doing next, ill be writing a supernatural/fantasy minbaek au next (or not), or doing oneshots if i find time. but until then if you liked this, then maybe . youd like readin my other works too . soon ill be reach ing 20 works for the nu'est tag 🤡


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